Amid the ongoing energy crisis, a Cork TD has urged the government to “urgently” approve development of Cork’s Barryroe oil field to help Ireland become “self-sufficient from an energy perspective.”
The remarks were made this week in the Dáil by Independent Cork South-West TD Michael Collins.
Michael Collins raises the issue of the Ballyroe oil field off the Cork coast, with an estimated reserve of over 300m barrels, which has gone completely unused and unlikely to be so given the government's pledge to end all new future oil and gas exploration. pic.twitter.com/cl4CiYpRTY
— JRD (@JRD0000) May 10, 2022
“In early 2021, I raised with the Tánaiste the effect of the proposed ban on the granting of new exploration licences,” said Collins.
“[I explained] how it would leave us not only without any energy independence, but also undermine investment in all existing exploration licences off the Irish coast – in particular the south-west coast of Ireland and Cork.”
The Deputy said that the cost of living was increasing at “an alarming rate,” adding: “little has changed to provide long-term solutions for our energy needs.”
He added that the ongoing conflict in Ukraine highlighted a clear need for Ireland to become self-sufficient in energy.
“Oil and gas will be required for at least another two to three decades while we transition to renewables,” he said.
“We currently import 100% of our oil and coal and 70% of our gas, but we have a unique opportunity to harness an indigenous supply of oil and gas on our doorstep by optimising the Barryroe field off the south-west coast. This House and our political system need to wake up to the exposure of our security of supply.”
Calling Barryroe “one of the largest undeveloped offshore oil and gas fields in Europe,” Collins said the resource could potentially provide enormous employment opportunities if fully utilised.
“I am aware Providence Resources, under the existing exploration licence, submitted the application for a lease undertaking in April 2021,” he said.
“Ministerial approval of the lease undertaking is urgently required to allow the Barryroe development to move forward. Who is delaying the development going forward? What is the Taoiseach going to do about the ongoing delays in respect of this national asset?”
Taoiseach Micheál Martin replied that the “conesus” of the government was to “move towards renewables and away from fossil fuels in general, and particularly, of course, away from exploration for fossil fuels.”
Martin also said that while the site had been drilled in the past, “nothing has ever come to fruition.”
The oil and gas field, which is known to have oil 100 metres under the sea off the Cork coast, has been the focus of several explorations since the 1970s. While oil has been discovered, nobody has yet discovered it in quantities that are commercially viable.
In 2012, Providence Resources, which owns 80% of the site, estimated the field to hold a potential 1 to 1.6 billion barrels of oil.
In April of 2013, an independent audit of the site gave an estimate of 311 million barrels of oil, and 207 billion cubic feet of gas.