The Government's high-level advisory group on the Corrib gas project has asked its consultants to examine a new report which says that the onshore pipeline could rupture, causing "high fatalities" due to its "unacceptable close proximity" to people and dwellings.
The Government and developers have been caught up in a "space shuttle syndrome" in relation to driving the entire Corrib gas project, US pipeline expert Richard Kuprewicz says in the report, published yesterday in Ballina, Co Mayo, by the Centre for Public Inquiry.
The centre, which is chaired by Mr Justice Feargus Flood, is a private body established earlier this year to investigate matters of public importance in Irish political, public and corporate life. It receives core funding from Irish-American businessman and philanthropist Chuck Feeney.
The 83-page report traces the relationship between governments and oil and gas companies over the last 30 years and asks why such governments were so keen to facilitate the industry by relaxing fiscal and licensing terms and cancelling royalties.
During its investigation into the background to the €900 million Corrib project, it found that within a week of senior executives of the Corrib consortium - Shell, Statoil and Marathon - meeting the Taoiseach in September 2003, they were given "unusual access" to An Bord Pleanála to express their concerns over planning delays.
An Bord Pleanála had refused planning permission for the proposed gas terminal at Bellanaboy in April 2003, but subsequently granted conditional permission for a revised plan in October 2004.
Two of its inspectors' three main concerns in relation to the location of the project were overruled in the first judgment.
As part of the study, the CPI commissioned Mr Kuprewicz, president of US-based consultants Accufacts Inc, to analyse the health and safety implications of the proposed onshore pipeline linking the Corrib gas field 70km offshore to a refinery or terminal at Bellanaboy onshore. Mr Kuprewicz's company had tendered unsuccessfully for the Government's third safety review of the pipeline, which has been given to the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources Noel Dempsey this week.
His analysis finds that the pipeline has a "uniquely large rupture impact zone with potential for high fatalities" and that the piping specified for use is "not invincible to leak or rupture" when transporting raw gas at high pressure, containing metals and radioactive gases. He says there is compelling evidence to suggest that internal corrosion of the pipeline is likely and that the maximum pipeline pressure has not been clearly demonstrated or documented by the developers. Shell's cited difficulties with building an offshore processing plant were overstated and routeing analyses for the onshore system were seriously deficient.
Mr Kuprewicz is critical of the Government's reliance on a quantified risk assessment to assess the Corrib project, when the pipeline is the first of its kind. He quotes previous pipeline ruptures, such as that in Carlsbad, New Mexico, in August 2000 which claimed 12 lives, as a compelling reason for a "reality reference check", given that the proposed pipeline runs within 70km metres of houses in Rossport, Co Mayo.
The report was welcomed by the Shell to Sea Campaign and the Campaign for Protection of Resources yesterday. Independent Mayo TD Dr Jerry Cowley said the Minister must now halt the project, while the Green Party's marine spokesman Éamon Ryan said the Minister must direct Shell to plan a safer means of bringing the gas ashore.
Shell E&P Ireland said it was also studying the report. It said the Corrib project had been through an exhaustive public consultation and regulatory process, and the final project design had been fully endorsed by all relevant authorities. Concerns regarding safety of the pipeline would be addressed in the review by Advantica for the Minister. Given exploratory discussions with the Government's mediator, former Ictu secretary-general Peter Cassells, were under way, the company said, it would not comment further.
A Department of the Marine spokeswoman said the Minister would publish the draft safety review shortly. The consultants had been asked by the Minister's Corrib technical advisory group to study the CPI findings for its final report, she added.
