Bord Gais is to develop a €50 million natural gas pipeline to serve the Isle of Man.
The decision to extend the network to the island follows recent decisions to build a second undersea connector between the Republic and Scotland, as well as pipelines from Dublin to Belfast and from Belfast to Derry.
The company is also building a 320km pipeline linking Dublin, Galway and Limerick; and a 150km pipeline from Mayo to Galway, connecting the landfall site for the Corrib gas field.
The pipelines from Dublin to Derry across Northern Ireland at a cost of about €150 million were grant-aided by the British and Irish governments.
The Isle of Man pipeline will be an 11km spur from the second Ireland-Scotland interconnector which passes close to the island's north-west coast. The gas is to power a new 85Mw power station being built by the Manx Electricity Authority (MEA), at Douglas, the Manx capital.
The pipeline is to be the first physical infrastructural connection between Scotland, the Isle of Man and Ireland.
Mr Gerry Walsh, chief executive of Bord Gáis, said the project was part of the €1.4 billion network development programme. The Isle of Man spur will come from a T-junction in the second interconnector pipeline to an above-ground installation at Glen Mooar on the island. From there MEA is constructing a 10-inch, 22km onshore pipeline to the new power station. It is expected that natural gas originating from the Transco network in the UK will power the station.
Construction work on the T-junction and the spurline is expected to be completed by the end of this year.
The Bord Gáis overall network development programme is one of the largest of such projects ever undertaken in Ireland.
"I am happy to report that work is well advanced on the pipeline to the west, and on the second interconnector from Dublin to Scotland.Both projects are on schedule for completion towards the end of the year, with construction work on the Mayo-Galway pipeline due to commence shortly. The initial stages from Belfast to Derry have already started," said Mr. Walsh.
