Worries about the expansion of Bellanaboy Refinery Site

mayo | environment | news report

Tuesday April 17, 2007 13:30

by Shell to Sea

dublinshelltosea at gmail dot com

134 Phibsborough Road Dublin 7

0871323369

How big will Bellanaboy get?

People around the country and abroad have expressed concern at the news that Statoil are considering using the Bellanaboy gas refinery to process gas found in blocks they've licensed off the west coast of Ireland.

Campaigners against the Irish government-backed pipeline and refinery scheme have always said that the huge amount of Coilte land that Shell got hold of indicated that the refinery site would grow.

If the initial scheme is allowed to be forced through, then planning for a "brownfield" site would be easy to get , so expansion of the refinery, and addition of more dangerous pipelines, is inevitable.

The article in the Mayo news below, finds that the no-one in the government, Shell or Statoil is refuting this anymore.

Protests against peat removal from refinery site at Bellanaboy site

Statoil plans heightens concern

Anton McNulty

CAMPAIGNERS opposed to the controversial Corrib gas pipeline and refinery at Bellanaboy have said that possible plans by Statoil to use the pipeline to transport gas from a field four times bigger than the Corrib field have reaffirmed fears that the site will be used for further development.
Statoil, who are one of the partners along with Shell in the Corrib gas project, have begun searching for gas in an adjacent area off the Mayo coast and they have confirmed that if any gas is found it is possible that Statoil could use the Corrib gas pipeline being built by Shell to transport it.
Statoil co-owns the exploration rights to the two areas it plans to explore with Shell, but unlike the Corrib gas project, Statoil are the senior partner and are solely responsible for the exploration work. The companies have held on to one of the two areas since 1994 and secured the rights to explore another area last year. The size of the two areas totals 1,970 square kilometres compared to 467 square kilometres for the area that produced the Corrib gas find.

The news of the gas exploration work and the possibility of using the Corrib gas pipeline came as little surprise to the opponents of the Corrib gas project who said they have constantly raised the issue of further development of the site. re is the development of a site with the capacity for expansion,” said Mark Garavan.

Here is a link to the rest of the article: http://tinyurl.com/3yp5qg

A spokesperson for Shell to Sea, John Monaghan told The Mayo News that at all the planning stages they have always tried to highlight the issue of expansion at Bellanaboy, but this was refuted by the developers, who said it was a once-off. He said the news that Statoil would look to use the site is confirmation that the site will not just be about Corrib and will lead to the increase in the industrialisation of a rural area.