An Bord Pleanála has postponed its decision on the €150 million Corrib gas field terminal in north Mayo, which was due to be delivered tomorrow.
The board had been working to a target date but a spokesman told The Irish Times this was not now going to be met. The final report may be ready by the end of the month.
The board is under enormous pressure to make a final ruling on the project, which is the largest infrastrucural project in the west and an integral part of the €700 million investment in the Corrib gas field. An unprecedented resumed oral hearing on several specific planning aspects of the application ran for 22 days late last year, finishing on December 10th.
The resumed hearing began two years after the first planning application was filed, and Royal Dutch Shell, now owner of Enterprise Energy Ireland (EEI), is already looking at a delayed target date of 2005 or 2006 for piping the gas ashore if it receives planning approval.
In its first ruling on the appeal against initial planning permission by Mayo County Council in August, 2001, An Bord Pleanála raised concerns about certain aspects of the project on health and safety grounds. The board said last June it had not been demonstrated that the remote siting of an onshore processing terminal eight kilometres inland from the landfall for the Corrib field constituted 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. EEI said it had undertaken a "significant review" and was confident that it had submitted sufficiently detailed information to address An Bord Pleanála's concerns.
The main appellants at the resumed hearing were EEI, An Taisce, Dúchas, the Heritage Service, the Erris Inshore Fishermen's Association, Erris residents, and the Friends of the Irish Environment.
SIPTU's national offshore committee, which represents Irish-based oil rig workers, has called again on Shell to explain why it won't construct a shallow water offshore gas processing platform instead of the land-based development at Bellanaboy.
While Shell had cited high capital costs as the main reason, the SIPTU offshore committee contends that under the 1992 Irish oil and gas tax deal, 100 per cent of these costs can be written off against tax in the early years of production. "The proposed Bellanaboy terminal /refinery is the quickest option for the Corrib North consortium in turning their gas into proft," Mr Padraig Campbell, SIPTU offshore committee spokesman said yesterday.
"Our committee argues that the best and least environmentally damaging option, as in the offshore facility, should be used."
The union's vice-president, Mr Jack O'Connor said: "The committee takes some comfort from the fact that Ireland is safe from any invasion by a "coalition of the willing" to secure hydrocarbon resources, because this State has already given away our oil and gas rights to the multi-national oil companies."