Background

 

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The Corrib gas project involves the construction of a high pressure gas pipeline and refinery through a pristine landscape in County Mayo, Ireland. Work on the project began in 1999 when oil engineers quietly moved onto a 400 acre woodland site owned by Coillte, the forestry authority. There was no consultation with local people and the project came to their attention via a local priest who declared it ‘the best thing since sliced bread.’

The Rossport Five (five local farmers) were jailed for 94 days (June 2005) for refusing access to Shell engineers onto their lands, prompting a national outcry. The vast majority of local people are in favour of the gas coming ashore and the jobs that come with it but resolutely oppose the project in its current form. The key reasons why people oppose the project include the absence of consent, unresolved health and safety issues, the location of an onshore refinery and high pressure pipeline close to homes and the danger to local water supplies. The manner in which the project has proceeded has generated a fresh set of concerns, notably the aggressive behaviour of Gardai and the breaches of environmental law by Shell E & P.

The project is advancing through the use of project splitting, whereby planning permits and licenses are applied for one by one, creating a sense of inevitability around the final outcome. This ‘project splitting’ is illegal under EU law and is one more reason why a thorough review is needed, a demand once made by Eamon Ryan, the Minister now responsible for overseeing the project. Ryan made the call when the Green Party was in opposition.

As Ireland’s economic crisis deepens, the issue of ownership and exploitation of natural resources has come to the fore as people question the giveaway of valuable resources at bargain basement rates. In France, Russia, Bolivia and many more countries, cash strapped governments have renegotiated ownership and royalty rates with oil and gas corporations. The affected companies (inc. Shell) complain about the changes but rarely walk away from what remains a highly profitable business.

Each stage of the Corrib gas project has brought fresh concerns over Shell’s lack of respect for local people. Members of Shell’s security team (contracted from IRMS) were involved in plans to overthrow the democratically-elected government of Bolivia, a criminal project which should have resulted in an immediate suspension of their security license pending a Garda inquiry. Instead it has been the campaigners who are accused of criminal behaviour, without supporting evidence.

The only comprehensive review of the project, a 400-page inquiry led by the An Bord Pleanala Senior Inspector Kevin Moore, (2002) rejected the project in its current form for a number of substantive reasons. The latest An Bord Pleanala oral hearing (June 2009) has come to the same conclusion as the Moore report, with consultants for SHELL E&P Ireland conceding that safe shelter in the event of a rupture and explosion had not yet been identified for residents living close to the proposed onshore pipeline route. The consultants also told the oral hearing that houses within 230 metres of the pipeline could “burn spontaneously” from heat radiation if gas in the pipe was at full pressure. The entire project is characterized by poor planning and a lack of foresight.

Meanwhile local campaigners have been demonized, ridiculed, intimidated, beaten and jailed. The campaign has three main representative groups; Pobal Chill Chomáin, (PCC) Pobal Le Chéile (PLC) and Shell to Sea (S2S).

PCC is a group of local people, which includes two of the Rossport Five. Pobal Chill Chomáin proposed the alternative site at Glinsk as a possible onshore refinery option, a move backed by members of the main political parties.

PLC is an alliance of small and medium businesses which count more members in their ranks than the Belmullet Chamber of Commerce. Spokesperson Ciarán Ó Murchú, who runs an adventure centre in north Mayo, was offered a €15,000 ‘gift’ by Shell E&P Ireland in return for supporting the project.

S2S is a network of local, national and international activists dedicated to raising awareness about the project and engaging in civil disobedience to halt it. The Rossport Solidarity Camp was set up in 2005 at the invitation of the local community. The camp is located above Glengad Beach, landfall site for the project.

This summer, the giant pipe-laying vessel ‘Solitaire’ prepares to link the offshore to the onshore sections of the project and an aggressive showdown is expected. A virtual state of emergency is likely to be declared and with it, the risk of severe injury to protesters, police and private security alike. Eamon Ryan, Minister for Communications, Energy & Natural Resources, has the power to halt the project at any point in time, without fear of financial penalty. The department website states that;

‘The Minister may, for such period as the Minister deems necessary, require that specific exploration, exploitation, production or processing activities should cease… subject to conditions which the Minister may specify, in any case where the Minister is satisfied that it is desirable to do so in order to reduce the risk of injury to the person, waste of petroleum or damage to property or the environment. No claim for compensation may be made against the Minister on foot of any such requirement.’

Politicians and media commentators have claimed that if the project is not completed in its current form then foreign investors will be frightened off. The reality is that the unrest surrounding the project (six years overdue and with no end in sight) and the absence of an effective government strategy to resolve it, are factors which are far more likely to drive away potential foreign investors.

The government faces a stark choice – it can intervene in a decisive manner, review the project and resolve community concerns or wait until death or serious injury accomplishes the same objective.

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