Shell to Sea and the Russian attack on Georgia- Evening Herald finds a connection

national | environment | other press Wednesday August 20, 2008 15:28 by evil gerald

Columnist Dan White on the hidden meaning of the war in the Caucasus

In today's Evening Herald, columnist Dan White plumbs new depths of idiocy. In a bizarre link, he tries to make out that the conflict in Georgia and South Ossetia should encourage the Irish government to help Shell bring the gas from the Corrib field onshore.

What does he think they have been doing? Does the 11 million euro spent on Garda overtime not indicate (even to the slow witted Dan White) that maybe the government is already on Shell's side?

read the full column here: http://www.herald.ie/opinion/columnists/dan-white/the-r....html

Mr White shows his mastery of the subject when he makes up some figures off the top of his head:
"Just as the Kinsale field was running low we discovered the Corrib natural gas field off Mayo. That field has the potential to supply 80pc of our needs for up to two decades."

Shell makes no such claim. Even if they decided to hand the gas over to Bord Gais (which they won't) there is no way there is that much out there.

Dan White asks: "So why aren't we bringing this gas ashore and reducing the risk of Russian blackmail? Blame the so-called Shell-to-Sea campaign. For several years this noisy group has prevented the gas being piped ashore on spurious "safety" grounds."

Yeah, so spurious that Shell reduced the pressure in the pipeline and changed the route.

But what is even sadder is that the O'Reilly newspapers are still claiming that the Corrib field will make a difference to Irish security of supply. Even the Green Party Ministers are no longer claiming that the gas will belong to anyone other than Shell (and the business partners).

Shell will sell it to the highest bidder, and if resources are scarce, the British energy companies will be setting the price.

The people of Ireland will own zero per cent of the gas. Unlike in Russia where the country's gas resources are owned by a state company.

As far as the conflict in the Caucasus affects natural resources, the people of Ireland would be better off if the Russian army invaded here.