Two years after the first planning application was filed, Enterprise Energy Ireland (EEI) intends to defend the location of its proposed Corrib gas field terminal at a resumed hearing in Co Mayo today.
The resumed hearing in Ballina by An Bord Pleanála will deal with further information received from EEI - now owned by Royal Dutch Shell - as the main backer of the €125 million project. After the first hearing last February, the appeals board sought further information from the developers.
In its letter, dated June 21st, the appeals board raised concerns about certain aspects of the project on health and safety grounds. The board said that it had not been demonstrated that the remote siting of an onshore processing terminal eight kilometres inland from the landfall for the Corrib field was the best choice.
Options for development of a shallow-water fixed steel jacket terminal offshore should be looked at, it said.
An Bord Pleanála also gave a 19-point summary of weaknesses, design problems and omissions identified in the planning application - which was approved by Mayo County Council with conditions in August of last year.
EEI says it has undertaken a "significant review" and is confident that it has submitted sufficiently detailed information to address An Bord Pleanála's concerns.
The company's managing director, Mr Andy Pyle, said at the weekend that Bellanaboy was the only viable option. An offshore plant was not an economic proposition, and the onshore site would have a "minimal visual impact", he said.
Mr Pyle said the developers were committed to bringing gas ashore in the shortest possible timescale. He said: "It is our hope that we will receive a favourable response from An Bord Pleanála in the near future and that we will be able to commence work on the onshore terminal in the early part of next year. Due to seasonal and other factors it is not possible to say when the onshore and offshore work will be completed but we will be making every effort to have first gas ashore in 2004."
The project leaders, Shell, have previously stated that failure to sanction its plans would lead to a reconsideration of the multi-million euro project.
Plans to exploit the field have been beset with difficulty. Following the delay, Shell and its co-owners, Marathon Petroleum and Statoil, were hit with a €31 million penalty claim from the Swiss shipping group Allseas, which had been contracted to lay a pipeline from the gas field to a landfall. The partners are still in negotiations with Allseas.
Main appellants at the resumed hearing are EEI, An Taisce, Dúchas, the Heritage Service, the Erris Inshore Fishermen's Association, Erris residents, and the Friends of the Irish Environment.
Observers include the Environmental Protection Agency, the Irish Offshore Operators' Association, IBEC, the Council for the West, Green MEP Ms Patricia McKenna and the Ballina Chamber of Commerce.
Erris residents are hosting a visit to the hearing by Dr Owens Wiwa, brother of the Nigerian writer, Ken Saro-Wiwa, who was executed with eight others over his opposition to Royal Dutch Shell's environmental record in 1995.
