A private American company is planning to spend approximately £300 million (€380 million) on a new gas pipeline between the Republic and Britain.
Canatxx Energy Ventures is involved in gas and power projects in the United States, Canada and Britain and has opened an office in Dublin to "develop its interests".
The company would not disclose the pipeline's exact route last night but said in a statement yesterday that it would "be complementary to the existing interconnector (pipeline) between north Dublin and Scotland". It claimed it can be built by the winter of 2001.
The current gas interconnector which comes in at Loughshinny suffers from lack of capacity and with several gas fired electricity plants planned and overall demand growing, a second pipeline may be needed.
A spokesman for Canatxx said last night the nine or 10 biggest gas customers in the Republic would be targeted by the company.
However, he added that Canatxx is also interested in supplying power generators, although he would not comment on whether a deal has already been done with one of them.
Among the new power generators is Northern Ireland Electricity (NIE), which is planning a 600 megawatt gas plant in partnership with CRH at Hunstown Quarry in Finglas. Other names have also been mentioned in the energy industry as possible partners for Canatxx, including the Californian company Atco and the Japanese trading house, Mitsui.
The ESB could also be a future customer for Canatxx, although its new 400 megawatt gas station planned for Ringsend, in Dublin will be supplied initially through existing contracts. In combination with the EU, Bord Gais built the existing interconnector, which goes from Scotland to Loughshinny in north Co Dublin, at a cost of £280 million in 1995 and currently charges a fee for its use to a few big companies such as the ESB which import some of their own gas. A new pipeline built by a private operator would effectively compete with the Bord Gais pipeline.
Bord Gais is itself understood to have been awaiting the final testing on the new Corrib gas field off the West Coast, before deciding whether it can contribute significantly to gas requirements in the years ahead or whether, with the Kinsale field running out, it would itself invest in a second pipeline to meet rising demand. It must now factor the plans for a second privately funded pipeline into its planning.
The 24 inch diameter pipeline will provide the additional capacity required and will provide security of supply to existing and new large scale customers, said Canatxx chief executive officer, Mr Dennis Volter last night.
Canatxx has appointed McMahon Design & Management to do the planning, design and construction of the pipeline.
