Investors likely to be sought for gas exploration project

TAMBORAN RESOURCES is likely to recruit new investors to raise some of the €50 million it needs to continue natural gas exploration in the north-west through this year and into 2013.

The company this week announced that it had identified a potentially commercial gas field spread across Fermanagh and Leitrim that could create up to 3,000 jobs if it were brought into production.

Tamboran plans to spend a total of $70 million (€53 million) over this year and next carrying out further work in both counties.

It is understood the company is aiming to recruit new, institutional backers by next April to help fund this activity.

The Australian-registered company is privately held. While it is likely to go public in the medium term, its management favours maintaining its current status for the time being.

However, a decision on whether to float in the short or long term is likely to depend partly on the outcome of talks it has been holding with potential investors.

Tamboran calculates that the basin it is exploring in Leitrim and Fermanagh could, over a 40-year period, ultimately produce a total of 4.4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, split evenly between the two counties.

This puts it on a par with the Fayetteville shale gas field operated by Southwest Energy in Arkansas, USA. Fayetteville is a medium-sized operation by US standards.

Tamboran has reported its findings to the petroleum affairs division of the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources in the Republic and and the Geological Survey of Northern Ireland.

Earlier this week, it said that if the field were brought to full production, it had the potential to create 600 jobs directly and a further 2,400 indirectly.

The company holds exploration permits in both jurisdictions, but as yet has no licence to begin drilling for and extracting natural gas.

Tamboran intends using hydraulic fracturing – fracking – to extract the gas. This involves pumping tonnes of water at rock faces deep underground to fracture them and release the gas.

A number of groups in the north-west are opposed to its plans as this method has been blamed for a number of serious environmental problems in the US.

Pat Rabbitte, Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, has asked the Environmental Protection Agency to produce a report on the practice.