Corrib gas project receives planning permission
THE final section of the Corrib gas pipeline has received planning permission from An Bord Pleanála. This decision means that Shell can now proceed to link the pipeline landfall at Glengad to the €1 billion gas terminal at Bellanaboy. This is the third application made at Shell Exploration and Production in the last ten years in relation to the project.
The revised new route will include an undersea tunnel going through Sruwaddacon Bay, which will carry a 5km section of the pipeline.
The tunneling was proposed by Shell as a safety measure following concerns about the proximity of the previously proposed routes to residential areas.
The planning permission means that Shell are now likely to try and complete work on the project in the near future although opponents to the project, who have been spearheading a campaign since 1996, may choose to seek a judicial review of An Bord Pleanála’s decision in the High Court.
The decision made public this morning (Thursday) has a total of 58 conditions.
Inspector Martin Nolan, who chaired last year’s resumed oral hearing on the revised plan, says that the application’s ‘clarity and transparency’ provides ‘confidence that the safety of the public is fully protected, and that the public will not be put at risk’.
He said this new plan submitted by Shell and partners last year was the “most suitable, the shortest and the most obvious route for this development”.
The route involves constructing a 4.2m-wide tunnel in the Sruwaddacon estuary for a pipe carrying high pressure raw gas from the landfall at Glengad. The final section will run overland to the gas terminal already completed at Bellanaboy. The offshore pipeline has already been laid.
Sruwaddacon estuary is a special area of conservation (SAC), running between the communities of Rossport, Pollathomas, Glengad and Aughoose.
Mr Nolan said the development was a “major project by any measure”, but the modifications proposed would have a “remarkably light impact on the pristine environment of the area”.
He also said that the proposed development would provide impetus for the future expansion of the natural gas network in Ireland.
“I expect it will provide impetus for additional exploration off the coast. Corrib will in my view provide opportunity for Mayo in particular to develop a new energy producing centre,” but Mr Nolan also stated new momentum was required to ‘engage the local community and to ensure the benefits of the scheme are developed and harnessed locally’.
He has recommended that an €8.5 million ‘community gain investment fund’ be paid over five years by Shell and partners, which would be held in trust by Mayo County Council, adding that this would “provide a strong enabling community gain which can be developed with leadership at every level into a long term economic and social stimulus for the area locally, but regionally as well”.
He praised Government policy on developing gas energy, but felt ‘further strategic planning’ was required if ‘the depths of controversy and conflict seen in the Corrib scheme are to be avoided in future’.
“Standards, strategic development sites, strategic corridors, clear process requirements for all consents, open procedures for decision making, transparency in presentation of projects” were areas which had ‘led to the depth of conflict and controversy seen in the Corrib scheme’, Mr Nolan said.
Once in production, Shell have stated that gas from the project will be distributed to homes and businesses throughout Ireland within the next three years.
link http://www.mayonews.ie/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11770:corrib-gas-project-receives-planning-permission&catid=23:news&Itemid=46
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