Roundtable Discussion; The Future of Mineral Sands. Watch the video here.
Another possible view of events!!!
At Wednesday’s debate, the Greens and then Brophy, the FG spokesman, said they don’t comment on licence’s that are been processed.
On the following afternoon, Thursday, the interview with Varadkar took place. To be fair he did comment on the licence , pointing out what he believed the issue was. His comments were double checked and confirmed by the journalist with a phone call to Varadkar’s aide.
On the following day, a quick fire fundraiser was initiated and completed.
Varadkar has given a wide ranging interview to the subscription newsletter the currency .
In it , he mentions Barryroe and the views he expressed are confirmed later by his aide over the phone.
Basically, according to Varadkar, in order to renew the licence , providence must undergo an economic assessment , which is ongoing but due to conclude soon.
But there is a question mark over whether Providence has the financial backing to move forward with the next stage of its appraisal.
You need the financial wherewithal to make use of it and I think that may have been the issue, says varadkar
What this the reason for Friday quick fundraiser and will be it enough. Obviously the decision is on its way
Thanks for link to scrip Brendanor. Usually stuff from all the left wing parties. What I found interesting is that no FF or FG deputies spoke in the debate apart from Fg spokesman, which actually I think is an encouraging sign. On the negative side , will the licence decision now be delayed for more months while waiting for new legislative position on exploration.
An interesting article in today Sunday independent. Maybe somebody should tell them about barryroe.
Panic at the petrol pumps: War-gaming the oil shock of 2022
https://www.independent.ie/business/irish/panic-at-the-petrol-pumps-war-gaming-the-oil-shock-of-2022-41739901.html
Here is a link to Michael Collins forcefully making the case for Barryroe in Dáil Éireann on May 10th with a disappointing confused response from Micheal Martin. The sooner Leo Varadkar takes over the better
https://m.facebook.com/watch/?v=948587292466622&_rdr
Below is a letter in todays sindo from the secretary of the rural independence group containing TD like Michael Collins, mattie McGrath etc. About time something like this happened.
Sir — The majority of households and small businesses in Ireland are struggling with the cost-of-living crisis on multiple fronts. Against this backdrop, Ireland is facing an existential threat to the cost of food and its energy security.
Despite these significant challenges, our Government has failed to address these seismic issues in any meaningful way. The energy crisis is made worse still by the Government's policy on energy, which is imprisoned by the narrow ideological position of the Green Party. It is now clear the Greens are wielding the power in government on key energy policy decisions.
The Government seems happy to proceed on this basis, as it means holding on to power and their ambition for a full five-year term, in spite of the potential consequences of doing so.
The Green Party's ideology has been laid bare since the Russian invasion. After all, their policy means closing down our own national resource supply of oil and gas, meaning we must import from anywhere that will supply us, at whatever price is dictated by exporters — including Russia. Such a policy approach may go down well at Green Party meetings, but it will send this country and our people down a dangerous path.
Change is needed. Ireland must have the option of developing its own oil and gas supplies in the Celtic Sea at Barryroe, where industry projections indicate there are 365 million barrels of oil and gas. That gas has currently been accepted as a transition fuel to green alternatives.
Government policy ignores that we will continue to need natural gas to anchor our electricity network for a long time to come. Importing the fuel will not only create a much larger carbon footprint, it will be costlier and leave us extremely vulnerable to supply and price shocks.
So far, the only political group in Dáil Éireann to raise these concerns has been the Rural Independent Group.
Continuing down the current path means the cost-of-living crisis will only worsen. And when energy supplies run low, we are at the end of the pipeline, so fuel will probably be reduced to a trickle.
The only logical route available is to detangle the Government's mistaken energy policies and ensure the development of Barryroe oil and gas, which, after all, is environmentally superior to what is being imported and would harness the required energy security while reducing the costs for everyone here.
John Hanafin,
General secretary of the Rural Independent Group
According to Naomi O’Leary in the Irish times , Germany have just about completed making final preparations to stop buying Russian oil. She argues Russian blocking of gas to Poland was a warning to Germany not to do so. Those million of gallons of oil in barryroe are becoming more and more alluring. The ugly sister is turning into Cinderella
This is from an interview with Ryan as quoted in today Indo. Is he softened his supporters before granting the lease ? Or he is just a delusional extremists.
Mr Ryan said, however, the solution to the crisis "couldn't be clearer”. "We need to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels,” he said. "You can't respond to a problem caused by a reliance on fossil fuels by burning more fossil fuels. It's a false promise, particularly in Ireland where we don't have fossil fuels.
"We have Corrib (the gas field off Mayo) and we will continue to use that wisely, but the likelihood of us finding new oil and gas is minimal.
"It's a 100-to-one mad bet, costing a fortune in the most expensive, harsh environment for oil and gas exploration you can find.
"Thinking that will solve your problem is crazy, especially as the reason it's a harsh environment is because there is so much wind. "I think I would sit down and explain that, explain the energy economics, of how expensive fossil fuels are and how comparatively cheap renewables are. It's that detailed analysis, shared in a patient manner, is what I think is needed to win the argument.”
No longer should we just be seeking the immediate issue of the lease undertaken but pressure needs to be put on the government to fast track the development of barryroe with the relevant legislation AND to provide financial incentives for its development.
The softly softly existing PR approach has not worked . Providence should be issuing to all TD’s and relevant journalists a succinct list of arguments why this is the case .
Also It’s good to see more and more people mention barryroe in the comments sections in the Irish times in the last few days.
Excerpt from Richard Curran, leading business correspondent with Sunday independent.
High time we re-thought our gas exploration ban .
One of the biggest impacts of the Ukraine crisis will be on gas prices. Should Russia cut the supply of gas to Europe, we could even see gas rationing in Ireland, as different countries try to pool what becomes available.
The reality is that we are going to need gas supplies well into the future, notwithstanding our push towards wind energy. The obvious thing to do is to diversify our gas supply sources. How better to do that than to encourage gas exploration off the Irish coast?
We have legislation on the books which prevents future exploration licences for oil and gas. It came into effect last February. It does not cover existing licence holders, but how encouraged will they be with such a piece of legislation on the books?
The Dáil may have rushed into passing this Bill without taking account of energy security realities that have now become apparent. Time for a rethink.
“Ireland’s aim is to become an exporter of energy but it remain vulnerable at present because of a dependence on imported fossil fuels, Taoiseach Micheál Martin has told a summit in France.”
Well then, Martin, give Ryan a kick up the arse and remember you are a cork man.
My fear is that Ryan will delay any decision on the lease undertaking until the completion of the energy security review been undertaken by his dept. It not due to be presented until end of Q2.
Just published in Irish times
Oil and gas explorer Providence Resources said on Friday that it had written to Minister for the Environment Eamon Ryan twice since late December urging him to grant a key lease on its Barryroe prospect off the Cork coastline, as it seeks to line up funding for the project.
“The board set out a number of considerations and noted that a decision not to grant the lease undertaking, or a protracted delay in doing so, would mean that the potential of the Barryroe Field will not be realised,” it said. “In our view, this would represent a serious failure in the national effort to transition the Irish economy to carbon neutral status by 2050.”
A lease undertaking is a ministerial commitment to grant a petroleum lease at a future date on an oil or gas discovery that has not yet been declared as a “commercial” find.
Providence plans to proceed with an appraisal well at the field in 2023, subject to ministerial approval, which could pave the way first production in 2026.
Investors in Providence have seen three Barryroe development partnership deals come to nothing in the decade since the field was found to have more than 300 million barrels of recoverable oil. The latest was abandoned last April.
Discussions
The company said on Friday that it has “initiated preliminary discussions with a number of potential industry partners, one or more of which may be attracted to participate in the Barryroe licence at this stage, subject to the grant of the ministerial consent to the lease undertaking.”
The company, which has an 80 per cent stake in the Barryroe licence, estimates that it will cost $65 million to cover its share of envisaged appraisal well and associated technical studies.
“The lease undertaking is vital to capture the potential of Barryroe, which is one of the largest undeveloped off-shore oil and gas fields in Europe, ” said Davy analyst Colin Grant. “It could significantly improve national energy security given Ireland imports 100 per cent of its oil, and the Corrib gas field will be depleted by 2031, at which point Ireland will be importing 100 per cent of its natural gas. It would also provide material tax revenues.”
Alan linn in his LinkedIn profile still has himself down as ceo of providence. You would think a chap seeking new opportunities would have updated his profile
Interestingly, AIM rules state than shareholder interest of 3%+ should be updated at LEAST every 6 months . Last update as in providence website was 7th July , so the update is a week overdue . Oversight?
Davys not days
Days in 2019 estimated a tax revenue of $2.9bn . This figure is an estimate of the total taxes that would be generated over 16 years of production from the field from 2024 to 2040. Also Latest research shows the annual intervention to NI in a new Ireland would be €2-3b as much of the current intervention includes costs for U.K. defence, pension contributions, national debt which would not relevant in a new Ireland. Finally green issues pale into insignificance to Sinn Fein compared to the main goal -unity
So providence , if you want full funding, you must get the licence updated and also show us more proof about the quality/quantity of oil/gas that’s there . Until then our wallet is closed tightly for complete funding. I suppose they are hoping Ryan gives the ok before end of jan or else the review will be extended again.
Let’s hope so. Maybe the MM got hint that news is coming .
Dublin up 50% but looks like a error unless there is a big order in the background
Anovas, having Larry goodman still there gives a bit of confidence, especially as I was hoping the results of the review would have been published this week. Xmas week and New Year’s Day week are usually used to bury bad news. We will have to wait and hope