andMr. Barrett asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce when he expects to be in a position to make known the results of the drillings for oil and gas in the Dublin Bay area.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Oil and Gas Exploration.
20.
As I indicated in a recent press statement, an exploration well will be drilled in Dublin Bay within the next few months. The precise date for commencement of the proposed drilling operations has not yet been determined as detailed seismic work is necessary beforehand so as to select the best drilling location.
Assessment of drilling results is normally concluded by the operating companies within a few weeks of completion of an exploration well. I should mention that such results are not normally published by me. Decisions to publish drilling results are basically a matter for the companies concerned.
Is there no way the Minister can expedite a result? We are all very interested in this development. It should not be left to the drillers to make an announcement. It is the Minister who should make the anouncement on this matter.
I understand Deputy Moore's desire for promptness. I emphasise that the decision to award the block and to have drilling this year as a result of that block award is a very recent one. I have made it clear, in return for the reward of that particular block, that I want the work carried out very promptly. The Minister for Industry and Commerce announces the allocation of a drilling block. It has not been the practice for the Department of Industry and Commerce but for the company concerned to announce the details as the well proceeds and, as the results come in, whether they are good or bad. There have been more disappointments than successes up to the present. I do not propose in this instance to change that practice. The only time I come into it is the statement that a block has been allocated and that the drilling commitment has been entered into. I have made clear my desire for promptness and I am absolutely satisfied since I know the detail in which companies are compelled to report to the Geological Survey, that there is no question of holding up information by a company which properly belongs to the public. There will not be any delay.
Would the Minister be prepared to admit to the House that, because of the regime which he has initiated and the general attitude of himself and his Department to the oil companies and the explorers, the drilling programme for this year is totally disappointing and that he had to twist the arms of a number of people and in fact go to the extent of bribing them by giving them additional blocks to get some semblance of drilling undertaken this year for election purposes?
This word "bribery" ought not to be used.
I will withdraw the word "bribery" and I will use the word——
Slush.
The word should be unreservedly withdrawn.
A handout.
——handout.
The dregs of electioneering are being surpassed by that question, because anybody who has looked in an unbiased way at the work in my period as Minister on the question of the Continental Shelf oil and gas will affirm that what I received——
The Minister will not terrify me.
Order. The Minister has been asked a question and he should be entitled to reply.
——when I took up office was a totally empty drawer and no preparations. The work on preparation and licensing in comparison with the world was achieved extraordinarily quickly and has been commended by many countries. The drilling programme this year is very satisfactory. If Deputy Haughey is pleased to rejoice in the fact that there have been no discoveries yet, that is his right in electoral terms to denigrate the effort made and to sneer at the results obtained. It is a contemptible exercise.
How many wells will be drilled this summer? Will the Minister agree that this summer we should expect about 40 wells if the regime he initiated was the right one? Will he also confirm that Marathon Oil, the main operators in this field, decided not to drill any wells this year until he again twisted their arms and forced them to come back again and drill one well.
The pitiful ignorance of the situation is demonstrated by the remark that there should be about 40 wells this year. If Deputy Haughey would familiarise himself with the rate of drilling in any comparable Continental Shelf he would know that that rate of drilling is unprecedented and unknown. We will have eight wells at least. One currently drilling is in the deepest water that has ever been drilled by an anchored rig. This is a very satisfactory scale of investment. It is prompt and very extensive and no effort to denigrate the work of the people doing it, either in the State sector or the private companies, will cut much ice.
I want to make it clear that I am not denigrating anyone in the private sector. I am denigrating the Minister's inept and inefficient——
Order. This is not in order.
That is the Deputy's electoral right and he will be laughed at for it.