Articles

Ireland’s share of revenue from Irish gas fields could be as low as 7%, report shows

The tax write-offs under Ireland’s licensing terms for oil and gas are so generous, oil companies could end up paying the exchequer as little as 7% of the revenue from Irish gas fields. This shocking figure is extrapolated from information provided by Brian O’Cathain, former head of the Corrib Gas project. He also predicted Corrib would not now pay any tax. By William Hederman. Read more

Oil companies plan to export directly from Irish oil fields

Oil might never come ashore here: no security of supply, no jobs, no investment
Currently the stock defence offered for Ireland’s excessively generous licensing terms for oil and gas is that they encourage exploration, which in turn will create jobs, investment and secure supply when the resources come ashore. There’s just one problem: the oil companies don’t plan to bring them ashore in Ireland. William Hederman investigates Read more

Book review: How the West was divided

January 15th, 2011 – IRISH EXAMINER – By William Hederman: This is not the first book about the Corrib gas saga to feature ominous storm-clouds on its cover. The choice of image will resonate with anyone who has visited the isolated corner of northwest Mayo where this remarkable drama has played out. A landscape of desolate beauty that would normally instil calm has been suffused with menace and angst in the decade since Enterprise Oil – since bought by Royal Dutch Shell – proposed building an inland gas refinery and high-pressure, raw gas pipeline in a shifting blanket bog with a history of landslides. Read more

ARCHIVE: Prominent Shell to Sea activist to oversee Corrib project

June 16th, 2007: Following several years of campaigning with Shell to Sea, Green Party TD Eamonn Ryan has been appointed to the ministry with responsibility for the Corrib Gas project. Ryan’s fellow campaigners will be watching with interest to see how he proceeds. In February 2007, the Green Party adopted a resolution that, in government, it would not sign a pipeline consent for the Corrib gas project until “a full, independent review” had been conducted into the project. Ryan’s Shell to Sea colleagues will not be encouraged by the early signs. By William Hederman Read more

ARCHIVE: New book tells Rossport Five’s own story

January 5th, 2007: The Rossport Five were back in the capital today to launch ‘Our Story – the Rossport Five’, their account of their time in prison in 2005 and the events that led to their imprisonment. The five men travelled to Dublin for the launch and press conference, along with Shell to Sea spokesperson Dr Mark Garavan and family members and supporters… Read more

Myth-making obscures realities of Corrib

November 2006: Minister Noel Dempsey’s latest contribution to the debate over the Corrib Gas project is a claim that a fellow TD overheard a mobile phone conversation on Grafton Street in Dublin, in which the words “riot” and “Rossport” were allegedly heard. Previous outbursts by the minister have been dismissed by the Shell to Sea campaign as “unhelpful”. But this intervention is helpful. It highlights the lack of any meaningful attempt by the Government to resolve the conflict… Read more

Rossport ‘ready for attack by state’

February 9th, 2006 – VILLAGE MAGAZINE – By William Hederman : 2006 looks set to be the make-or-break year in the struggle between Rossport, Shell and the Government, with locals expecting riot police in their community this summer. Micheál Ó Seighin, one of the Rossport Five, spoke to William Hederman… Read more

Shell meets its match in the Rossport Five

July 29th, 2005 – THE GUARDIAN – By William Hederman: The residents of the tiny village of Rossport, in the north-west corner of County Mayo on Ireland’s Atlantic coast, have been up in arms for almost five years now. They have spent that time campaigning against a proposal by the petroleum giant Shell to lay a pipeline through their community to carry untreated gas from beneath the sea to a refinery 5.5 miles inland. Their cause secured little or no coverage in the national press until, at the end of June, five of them were jailed for refusing Shell access to their land to begin work on the pipeline… Read more

‘Sitting on a time-bomb’

July 1st, 2005 – VILLAGE MAGAZINE – By William Hederman: Fears about the high pressure of gas in Shell’s disputed North Mayo pipeline were behind the willingness of five local men to go to jail. Some of them spoke to William Hederman before going to prison… Read more

‘A rape of our natural resources’

July 1st, 2005 – VILLAGE MAGAZINE – By William Hederman: In the long-running dispute over Shell’s high-pressure gas pipeline in North Mayo, the objections of those living close to the pipeline tend to be juxtaposed against the “national interest” and Mayo’s “regional development”. But just what will the benefits to Ireland be?… Read more