RE: Phoebus-Court Case7 Jan 2019 11:21
An Taisce v Irish Government re Barryroe. From PVR 2018-12-28 RNS:
'BARRYROE - POSTPONEMENT OF WELL-SITE SURVEY
In November, an application for a judicial review was taken by An Taisce against the Minister of Communications, Climate Action and Environment ("the Minister") and the Attorney General of Ireland, challenging the legality of the permission granted to EXOLA to conduct well-site survey operations at Barryroe. This matter between An Taisce and the State has been subsequently adjourned until January 15th, 2019.
As notified by RNS on November 30, 2018, noting the potential delay and uncertainty that such a review could have caused, the Barryroe Partners took a decision not to act on the well site survey permission with immediate effect. As a result of this voluntary decision not to act on the well site survey permission, EXOLA elected to postpone the planned well site survey for Q4 2018. Accordingly, EXOLA will now apply to the Minister for a new permission to carry out well site survey activities as early as practicable in 2019. '
So proceedings only a week tomorrow. I'm also worried about possible further action on various other issues which could see things delayed again. 2018-11-30 PVR states '...An Taisce sought to challenge by way of Judicial Review the process by which permission for the well site survey operations had been granted by the Minister, AS WELL AS RAISING OTHER ISSUES relative to environmental assessment and compliance with EU law. '
Who knows how long this could drag on. Unlikely An Taisce will have started a fight unless they want to make it as messy as possible for all involved. My fear is the drilling gets pushed back to the other side of the next global financial crisis, which looks to have started already with the yield curve now inverted for the first time since 2008.
LOGP will also need more funding to keep the lights on as current funds were only enough to see it through to a little after the earlier spud date. That said, previous funding by the two corner stone investors suggests it could be achieved with little downside. However, if the global crisis continues to accelerate this could get evicerated along with the rest of the market. Best to remain a bit cautious especially with market wide liquidity drying up and drilling still a way off at best. GLA