THE head of Shell in Ireland has admitted the company didn't do a "very good job" addressing local people's safety concerns over plans to put a gas pipeline in Co Mayo.
Announcing a revised route for the controversial pipeline yesterday, managing director Andy Pyle said gas pipelines were "normal practice" in many countries and the company had "probably" failed to explain that to local residents.
The modified route for the onshore section of the Corrib gas pipeline is twice as far away from homes and will operate at half the pressure of the previous line.
The revised route was decided after 11 months of consultation with local people. Stiff local opposition, including the jailing of the so-called Rossport Five in 2005, led to mediator Peter Cassells being appointed in an attempt to break the deadlock between the company and locals.
He recommended that it be moved from the vicinity of Rossport because of concerns about its proximity to housing.
Gas pipelines were "well tested" and "used extensively" throughout the world, Mr Pyle said, adding that people not "implacably opposed" to the pipeline would see it as a compromise.
A planning application seeking permission to build the pipeline would be lodged with An Bord Pleanala within weeks.
"Pipelines are pretty common technology and that [level of opposition] caught us on the hop," he said.
"We would see this as very normal practice. We probably didn't do a very good job explaining that. Pipelines have a very good record, safety wise. The end result, I think, will be acceptable. We definitely feel we have the right balance."
The 9.2km pipeline will carry raw gas from a field 83km off the coast. It will come ashore at Glengad before crossing Sruwaddacon Bay into Rossport.
Refinery
It skirts around the village and along the boundary of the Glenamoy Bog Complex Special Area of Conservation (SAC) before recrossing Sruwaddacon Bay and continuing onto the Bellanaboy gas refinery, currently under construction.
But the Shell to Sea group said a small village at the centre of the controversy would be sliced in half by the new route, with a spokesman saying it would worsen relations between Shell and locals.
"They are literally dividing a community now,'' John Monaghan said.
"They are now actually physically dividing the village of Rossport itself and that is not going to make them any friends.''
"If they were to get an acceptable route the refinery itself still poses a threat. If this is the only way that they see a solution to this problem then it will never go away.''
Paul Melia
Irish Independent
www.buckplanning.ie
Showing posts with label shell. Show all posts
Showing posts with label shell. Show all posts
Sunday, 20 April 2008
Shell boss tells of his regret as pipe route is revised
THE head of Shell in Ireland has admitted the company didn't do a "very good job" addressing local people's safety concerns over plans to put a gas pipeline in Co Mayo.
Announcing a revised route for the controversial pipeline yesterday, managing director Andy Pyle said gas pipelines were "normal practice" in many countries and the company had "probably" failed to explain that to local residents.
The modified route for the onshore section of the Corrib gas pipeline is twice as far away from homes and will operate at half the pressure of the previous line.
The revised route was decided after 11 months of consultation with local people. Stiff local opposition, including the jailing of the so-called Rossport Five in 2005, led to mediator Peter Cassells being appointed in an attempt to break the deadlock between the company and locals.
He recommended that it be moved from the vicinity of Rossport because of concerns about its proximity to housing.
Gas pipelines were "well tested" and "used extensively" throughout the world, Mr Pyle said, adding that people not "implacably opposed" to the pipeline would see it as a compromise.
A planning application seeking permission to build the pipeline would be lodged with An Bord Pleanala within weeks.
"Pipelines are pretty common technology and that [level of opposition] caught us on the hop," he said.
"We would see this as very normal practice. We probably didn't do a very good job explaining that. Pipelines have a very good record, safety wise. The end result, I think, will be acceptable. We definitely feel we have the right balance."
The 9.2km pipeline will carry raw gas from a field 83km off the coast. It will come ashore at Glengad before crossing Sruwaddacon Bay into Rossport.
Refinery
It skirts around the village and along the boundary of the Glenamoy Bog Complex Special Area of Conservation (SAC) before recrossing Sruwaddacon Bay and continuing onto the Bellanaboy gas refinery, currently under construction.
But the Shell to Sea group said a small village at the centre of the controversy would be sliced in half by the new route, with a spokesman saying it would worsen relations between Shell and locals.
"They are literally dividing a community now,'' John Monaghan said.
"They are now actually physically dividing the village of Rossport itself and that is not going to make them any friends.''
"If they were to get an acceptable route the refinery itself still poses a threat. If this is the only way that they see a solution to this problem then it will never go away.''
Paul Melia
Irish Independent
www.buckplanning.ie
Announcing a revised route for the controversial pipeline yesterday, managing director Andy Pyle said gas pipelines were "normal practice" in many countries and the company had "probably" failed to explain that to local residents.
The modified route for the onshore section of the Corrib gas pipeline is twice as far away from homes and will operate at half the pressure of the previous line.
The revised route was decided after 11 months of consultation with local people. Stiff local opposition, including the jailing of the so-called Rossport Five in 2005, led to mediator Peter Cassells being appointed in an attempt to break the deadlock between the company and locals.
He recommended that it be moved from the vicinity of Rossport because of concerns about its proximity to housing.
Gas pipelines were "well tested" and "used extensively" throughout the world, Mr Pyle said, adding that people not "implacably opposed" to the pipeline would see it as a compromise.
A planning application seeking permission to build the pipeline would be lodged with An Bord Pleanala within weeks.
"Pipelines are pretty common technology and that [level of opposition] caught us on the hop," he said.
"We would see this as very normal practice. We probably didn't do a very good job explaining that. Pipelines have a very good record, safety wise. The end result, I think, will be acceptable. We definitely feel we have the right balance."
The 9.2km pipeline will carry raw gas from a field 83km off the coast. It will come ashore at Glengad before crossing Sruwaddacon Bay into Rossport.
Refinery
It skirts around the village and along the boundary of the Glenamoy Bog Complex Special Area of Conservation (SAC) before recrossing Sruwaddacon Bay and continuing onto the Bellanaboy gas refinery, currently under construction.
But the Shell to Sea group said a small village at the centre of the controversy would be sliced in half by the new route, with a spokesman saying it would worsen relations between Shell and locals.
"They are literally dividing a community now,'' John Monaghan said.
"They are now actually physically dividing the village of Rossport itself and that is not going to make them any friends.''
"If they were to get an acceptable route the refinery itself still poses a threat. If this is the only way that they see a solution to this problem then it will never go away.''
Paul Melia
Irish Independent
www.buckplanning.ie
Tuesday, 17 April 2007
Public hearing opens on Shell gas refinery proposals
Environment agency will hear submissions before licence ruling ...
A PUBLIC hearing on the granting of an operating licence for the €200m Corrib Gas refinery opened in Belmullet, Co Mayo got underway yesterday.
The hearing, organised by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), will decide whether the refinery should be granted a pollution control licence.
Submissions will be taken over the next two weeks, from parties including An Taisce, the Erris Inshore Fishermen's Association and members of the Shell to Sea campaign group who are objecting to the terminal on health and safety grounds. The EPA announced in January that it intended to licence the refinery, subject to 85 conditions. The EPA said it believed the terminal would not adversely affect human health or the environment.
The main concern of the Erris Inshore Fishermen‘s Association is the negative impact on the marine environment of the outfall pipe from the refinery, which will release treated chemical and metallic contaminants.
Shell to Sea's John Monaghan told the chairman of the hearing that the large garda presence at the Broadhaven Bay hotel was intimidating and should be reduced in the interest of full public participation.
The Environmental Protection Agency was criticised for not ensuring that officials from a number of State authorities attended the hearing.
Imelda Moran, one of the 13 appellants challenging the licence for the Corrib refinery, said that representatives from Mayo Co Council, the HSA, and An Bord Pleanála should have been mandated to attend.
Processes
Corrib gas environmental advisor Agnes McLaverty, who delivered Shell's initial submission, argued that natural gas operations in general did not pose large risks to the environment or to the public.
The processes and equipment proposed for the Bellanaboy Bridge terminal represented technologies that Shell uses in gas plants in many parts of the world, she said.
One person was arrested for public order offences during a demonstration at the site yesterday.
Aine Ryan
Irish Independent
A PUBLIC hearing on the granting of an operating licence for the €200m Corrib Gas refinery opened in Belmullet, Co Mayo got underway yesterday.
The hearing, organised by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), will decide whether the refinery should be granted a pollution control licence.
Submissions will be taken over the next two weeks, from parties including An Taisce, the Erris Inshore Fishermen's Association and members of the Shell to Sea campaign group who are objecting to the terminal on health and safety grounds. The EPA announced in January that it intended to licence the refinery, subject to 85 conditions. The EPA said it believed the terminal would not adversely affect human health or the environment.
The main concern of the Erris Inshore Fishermen‘s Association is the negative impact on the marine environment of the outfall pipe from the refinery, which will release treated chemical and metallic contaminants.
Shell to Sea's John Monaghan told the chairman of the hearing that the large garda presence at the Broadhaven Bay hotel was intimidating and should be reduced in the interest of full public participation.
The Environmental Protection Agency was criticised for not ensuring that officials from a number of State authorities attended the hearing.
Imelda Moran, one of the 13 appellants challenging the licence for the Corrib refinery, said that representatives from Mayo Co Council, the HSA, and An Bord Pleanála should have been mandated to attend.
Processes
Corrib gas environmental advisor Agnes McLaverty, who delivered Shell's initial submission, argued that natural gas operations in general did not pose large risks to the environment or to the public.
The processes and equipment proposed for the Bellanaboy Bridge terminal represented technologies that Shell uses in gas plants in many parts of the world, she said.
One person was arrested for public order offences during a demonstration at the site yesterday.
Aine Ryan
Irish Independent
Friday, 23 February 2007
All change for Shell in the public relations stakes
Current Account: SHELL E&P Ireland is not known to be shy when it comes to the press - particularly since its extensive shake-up of public relations over a year ago after the 94-day jailing of the Rossport Five. However, one detected a slight coyness within the company this week about the future of its "external communications support".
Up to now this combination of public relations and backroom lobbying has been provided for the troubled Corrib gas project by lobbyists Financial Dynamics (FD), headed by Paul MacSharry, and Powerscourt Media, co-founded by Irish journalist Rory Godson. However, FD's three-year contract is up, and Shell confirmed to Current Account that the PR company had asked "not to be considered" for any new consultancy arrangement.
Shell says it is "still in the process" of appointing an alternative, but the successor is believed to be Q4 Public Relations, run by former FF press handlers Jackie Gallagher
(ex-Irish Times and Bertie Ahern's advisor from 1994 to 1998), Martin Mackin, along with Angie Kinnane, formerly of FD, and Gerry O'Sullivan, Eircom's former director of corporate affairs.
With some State consents still to be secured for aspects of the project, it would appear Shell is still banking on FF in power after the general election.
© Irish Independent
Up to now this combination of public relations and backroom lobbying has been provided for the troubled Corrib gas project by lobbyists Financial Dynamics (FD), headed by Paul MacSharry, and Powerscourt Media, co-founded by Irish journalist Rory Godson. However, FD's three-year contract is up, and Shell confirmed to Current Account that the PR company had asked "not to be considered" for any new consultancy arrangement.
Shell says it is "still in the process" of appointing an alternative, but the successor is believed to be Q4 Public Relations, run by former FF press handlers Jackie Gallagher
(ex-Irish Times and Bertie Ahern's advisor from 1994 to 1998), Martin Mackin, along with Angie Kinnane, formerly of FD, and Gerry O'Sullivan, Eircom's former director of corporate affairs.
With some State consents still to be secured for aspects of the project, it would appear Shell is still banking on FF in power after the general election.
© Irish Independent
Friday, 19 January 2007
Shell denies it let pipeline protesters languish in prison
The Irish Times writes that Shell E&P Ireland has rejected claims that it allowed five Rossport men to languish in prison for several weeks in 2005 after the company had agreed to cease work on its controversial onshore gas pipeline pending the outcome of a safety review by the Minister for the Communications, Marine and Natural Resources.
Counsel for Shell Patrick Hanratty told the High Court yesterday such a suggestion was "grossly unfair". Shell had nothing to do with the amount of time the men spent in prison or the fact they were there at all, he said.
Mr Hanratty said the Minister had said that he was commissioning a safety review in July 2005, but Shell did not not know what form that report would take until the following September, when it applied to have the injunction lifted.
He was responding to submissions by Lord Brennan QC, counsel for two opponents of the pipeline, Brendan James Philbin and Breege McGarry, who told the court on Tuesday that documents had revealed that Shell had agreed with the Minister in early July 2005 to stop work on the pipeline pending compliance issues and the outcome of the safety review.
Lord Brennan said it was only in September 2005 that the company applied to the High Court to have the five men released from prison, citing the suspension of work and the safety review as the basis for its application. The men had spent 94 days in prison before they were freed.
Mr Hanratty also rejected Lord Brennan's argument that Shell should pay on a solicitor-client basis (the highest level of legal costs) those costs to date by four defendants, including three of the men known as the Rossport Five, in relation to proceedings brought against them by Shell. There was "not one shred of evidence" of misconduct on the part of Shell.
Ms Justice Mary Laffoy yesterday reserved judgment on the application.
Counsel for Shell Patrick Hanratty told the High Court yesterday such a suggestion was "grossly unfair". Shell had nothing to do with the amount of time the men spent in prison or the fact they were there at all, he said.
Mr Hanratty said the Minister had said that he was commissioning a safety review in July 2005, but Shell did not not know what form that report would take until the following September, when it applied to have the injunction lifted.
He was responding to submissions by Lord Brennan QC, counsel for two opponents of the pipeline, Brendan James Philbin and Breege McGarry, who told the court on Tuesday that documents had revealed that Shell had agreed with the Minister in early July 2005 to stop work on the pipeline pending compliance issues and the outcome of the safety review.
Lord Brennan said it was only in September 2005 that the company applied to the High Court to have the five men released from prison, citing the suspension of work and the safety review as the basis for its application. The men had spent 94 days in prison before they were freed.
Mr Hanratty also rejected Lord Brennan's argument that Shell should pay on a solicitor-client basis (the highest level of legal costs) those costs to date by four defendants, including three of the men known as the Rossport Five, in relation to proceedings brought against them by Shell. There was "not one shred of evidence" of misconduct on the part of Shell.
Ms Justice Mary Laffoy yesterday reserved judgment on the application.
Friday, 8 December 2006
Shell ordered to clean up site of Trim civic offices
From Irish Times:
Irish Shell faced a multi-million euro bill yesterday after the High Court ordered it to take immediate steps to clean up the site of Meath County Council's proposed new civic offices in Trim.
The site was heavily polluted by the leakage of petroleum products from a Shell filling station.
Mr Justice Vivian Lavan directed that Shell must clean up the site to the standard sought by the council, which Shell had agreed to in early 2003 but subsequently argued was "impossible" to achieve.
That standard required that groundwater at the site meet drinking water standards for petroleum hydrocarbons.
Mr Justice Lavan said he was satisfied that Shell had not made out its case that remediation on the council's terms was not achievable. Shell, he noted, had entered into an agreement with the council in February 2003 to remediate the site to the standard in question after "diligent negotiations" between both sides.
The judge said the clean-up levels agreed in 2003 were based on the "conservative assumption" that groundwater immediately adjacent to the civic office site was required to meet drinking water standards for petroleum hydrocarbons.
Shell was now contending that requirement was not appropriate and was not required to protect the health of users of the site, whether construction workers or future occupiers of the civic offices.
Having considered both sides' arguments, the judge granted a mandatory injunction requiring Shell to take immediate steps to remediate the site in accordance with those levels agreed in 2003. He adjourned the issue of costs for a week to allow the sides consider his decision.
The proceedings arose as a result of a hydrocarbon discharge in 2001 from a petrol station at
The site was formerly used as a car park for the local swimming pool but is now the proposed site of the council's new civic offices. The petrol leak was detected in January 2001 after a sheen from hydrocarbons was observed in the nearby river
Friday, 24 November 2006
Shell seeks licence to carry out survey for pipeline
Shell E&P Ireland has applied for foreshore licensing to carry out marine surveys as part of its work on a modified route for its onshore pipeline.
The full marine surveys will be conducted in Sruwaddaccon and Rossport bays, following foreshore licence approval, the company confirmed at an open evening in Belmullet, Co Mayo last night.
Several dozen people attended last night's opening of the two-day exhibition by the Corrib gas partners in the Broadhaven Hotel, Belmullet.
Among participants was contractor, Mercury Engineering. It is offering places to 15 apprentices from the Erris area who may be given an option to work in north Mayo on graduation.
Shell E&P Ireland officials were on hand to talk to visitors, and feedback forms with stamped addressed envelopes and free copies of the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group's new guidebook were among literature available.
The company is stressing that the resumption of work at the Bellanaboy terminal - in advance of a new pipeline route agreement - represents a "jobs boost", with 170 jobs linked to terminal construction and 50 permanent jobs on completion.
Local objectors are still conducting dawn protests, and up to 100 gardaà are being maintained to escort staff to work. Chris Tallott, a retired Bord na Móna employee and founder of the North-West Mayo Action Group, attended last night's open evening, and said he felt that the project had enormous benefits for the area. "Our action group doesn't want jobs at any cost, and I do feel Shell made some stupid mistakes and that last year's jailing of the Rossport five was terrible," Mr Tallott said.
"I don't like to see what's happening with the gardaà either, but I do wish for dialogue. I feel that 50 jobs in Bellanaboy is the equivalent of 500 jobs in
Maura Harrington, one of the objectors present, said that there was "no excuse for the paucity of hard information" at the exhibition.
She cited its reference to a "small amount of cold venting" during gas processing at the terminal - an issue which the Environmental Protection Agency has been seeking more information on.
Several Rossport residents who attended said there were still questions to be answered about the proximity of the gas terminal to Carrowmore lake, Erris's main public water supply.
Shell to Sea has called off its "day of solidarity" planned for this Friday at Bellanaboy, on health and safety grounds. It has reiterated its call for a commission of inquiry to look at the optimum development concept for the project, and this has been supported by the Labour Party, the Green Party and Sinn Féin.
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