Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 16 January 2013
577. Deputy Michael Healy-Rae asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources in view of the potential for oil and gas industries to exploit the natural resources which lie underneath our sea bed, if he has proposals to support such undersea exploitation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [57840/12]
View answerGovernment policy is to maximise the benefits to Ireland from exploration for and production of our indigenous oil and gas resources, while ensuring that activities are conducted safely and with due regard to their impact on the environment and other land/sea users
In recent years there has been some upturn in the level of interest in exploration off our coast, however, the potential of the Irish offshore as a petroleum producing region is largely unproven and this is likely to remain the case unless there is a significant increase in the level of exploration activity, in particular exploration drilling.
To this end, my Department encourages exploration investment through an active and targeted promotion campaign, regular licensing rounds and by supporting petroleum research projects that deepen knowledge of the petroleum potential of the Irish offshore. Last November, I announced that my Department had designed a major state-of-the-art seismic acquisition programme to provide a regional grid of high quality seismic data over our Atlantic frontier basins. I am pleased to inform the Deputy that the procurement process for the survey is nearing completion with data acquisition planned for later this year. When complete, the survey will add to the understanding of the petroleum potential of our frontier basins and should provide a boost to our efforts to attract international mobile exploration investment to Ireland.
