Archive for the ‘Gas tunnels’ Category

A parent company of the mighty Shell Ireland has made a further investment of 60 million Euros in the Corrib Gas project, thus raising the total level of investment from Shell E&P Ireland to 190 million Euros. This will now enable the last phase of the Corrib Gas project to take place.

The recent investment from Shell will now enable construction work to begin on the 5 km subterranean tunnel that will eventually bring gas ashore from the Corrib off-shore Gas field to the mainland. Experts say that there are one trillion cubic feet of gas in the Corrib gas field and nearly 2.5 billion Euros has already been spent on developing the gas field. This is almost three times as much as the original estimated cost of development: this was estimated to be 800 million Euros.

All of the necessary permissions and consents have now been obtained and Shell E&P Ireland are expected to begin work on the 5 km tunnel in the next three months. The Corrib Gas tunnelling project is expected to take around 22 months and the contractor hopes that it all of the work will have been completed by 2013. If everything goes to plan, the first gas flow will take place in 2013. Several hundred jobs should be created as construction work on the tunnel begins, although final job numbers have not yet been confirmed by Shell.

An Bord turned down the original proposal for a gas pipeline to the mainland on safety grounds back in 2009. Two local residents have also raised objections to the pipeline in court and legal action has begun. Due to the fall in international gas prices and the extensive delays to hit the project, Shell have already been forced to write off at least 399 million Euros since the gas pipeline project first began.