It could be gas at the Inishkeas

New project could have drilling status by the end of 2018

Áine Ryan and Edwin McGreal

WITH emigration and unemployment rife in Erris, local people must not ‘let history repeat itself’ as a major exploration project, adjacent to the Corrib Gas field, is fast-tracked. That is the view of Sinn Féin Senator Rose Conway-Walsh, who plans to bring the issue before the Oireachtas at the beginning of the next term.
She is referring to Europa Oil & Gas’s flagship project in the Slyne Basin, known as the Inishkea prospects, where the company has been carrying out seismic tests since last March while simultaneously engaging with Irish regulatory authorities to progress the project.  
Speaking to The Mayo News yesterday (Monday), Senator Conway-Walsh said: “The lack of any real benefits to the community of Erris and the county of Mayo from the Corrib Gas Project is reflected in the reality of continued emigration, high unemployment, local business closures, the state of the R312, the lack of telecommunications and families struggling to make ends meet. Surely we are not going to allow history to repeat itself with the Slyne Basin?”   
Continuing, she said: “The great giveaway of our natural resources continues. Europa Oil & Gas is among several companies that have benefited from government policy to transfer public resources to private interests. The fiscal terms offered to these companies are amongst the lowest in the world. Drilling is to start for the Slyne Basin in the next 24 months. 
“The question for us here in Mayo and in Erris is, ‘Are we going to continue to support governments that facilitate billions of euro going into the pockets of foreign speculators from our oil and gas while we in the region are starved of investment for vital infrastructure that could enable people to live and work in our own area?’.”
Seantor Conway-Walsh said that the fiscal terms ‘gifted’ to these companies ‘is deeply insulting to small businesses, farm families and all of us who are taxed and levied to the hilt’.  
“How can it be right that many of these companies, such as those involved in the Corrib Gas Project, can avail of write-offs that enable them to go without paying corporation tax for decades?” she asked.   
Meanwhile, her party colleague Cllr Teresa Whelan raised the issue at last week’s meeting of Mayo County Council’s Economic Development and Enterprise Support Strategic Policy Committee.  Cllr Teresa Whelan said the people of Belmullet were ‘dismayed’ to read about these plans in American media. “What are we getting as a county for this? I hope it is not another giveaway like Corrib. We should know what is happening on our coastline. The people of Belmullet are very upset,” she said.
She asked that the item be put on the agenda for the next meeting. However, Catherine McConnell, Mayo County Council Director of Services, said the SPC members have ‘no role we can play’ on this issue.
In Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc’s latest newsletter, it states that it is ‘concentrating its efforts’ on its flagship Inishkeas prospects (Licensing Option 16/20), immediately adjacent to the Corrib Gas field, in the Slyne Basin, with a focus on progressing it to drilling status by the end of this year.
Earlier this year the company’s chief executive, Hugh Mackay, told The Irish Examiner:
“We believe 2.5 tcf cubic feet of undiscovered gas, initially, in place, is likely to translate into commercially significant prospective resources.” He also said that the Corrib field currently provides 60 percent of the country’s gas demand but that this would diminish by 10 percent over the next seven years. He suggested that the Europa plans could possibly prolong the existing Corrib infrastructure.
Interestingly, the Corrib Gas Partners (led by Vermillion) reported a 40 percent increase in estimated revenues to €524.4 million in 2017. That was despite 31 days of lost production – mainly as a result of odourless gas getting into the system.