Shell to sea demand action from Norwegian Government

galway | environment | news report

Tuesday May 31, 2005 18:05

by Aoife Lee - Shell to Sea

aalee at eircom dot net

Furbo, Co. Galway

087 6744133

Niall Ó Brollacháin presents letter

Galway City Councillor, Niall Ó Brolacháin, today presented Honorary Norwegian Consul, Raymond Rooney with a letter on behalf of Shell to Sea.

The letter requested the Norwegian government take immediate action tostop Shell pushing through this unprecedented pipeline. It also asked that Shell be mandated to behave as they would in Norway.

Niall Ó Brolocháin and Ray Rooney

Galway City Councillor, Niall Ó Brolacháin, today presented Honorary Norwegian Consul, Raymond Rooney with a letter on behalf of Shell to Sea.

The letter requested the Norwegian government take immediate action tostop Shell pushing through this unprecedented pipeline. It also asked that Shell be mandated to behave as they would in Norway.

Shell to Sea, Galway Branch
www.shelltosea.com

31st May 2005

Honorary Consul Raymond J. Rooney,
Royal Norwegian Consulate,
Victoria House,
Eyre Square,
Galway, Ireland

Dear Sir,

Shell to Sea would greatly appreciate if you could communicate the following points of information to the Norwegian Government on behalf of the Irish people.

This letter has been written with regards to the on going conflict between the local people of the Erris community in North Mayo and the companies working on the Corrib Gas Field off the North-West Irish Coast, namely; Shell, Statoil and Marathon Oil.

The above-mentioned project proposes to construct a 9km on-shore pipeline running adjacent to people’s homes and whose landfall lies just underneath the highly unstable landslide zone of Dooncartoon Mountain, and an on-shore refinery in Bellanaboy Wood.
However, there is great anxiety surrounding the safety of these proposed structures. There are two reasons for this.
The first reason is that this type of upstream pipeline is unprecedented, this is very worrying due to the proximity of the pipeline to people’s homes, the pressure (345 bar), and the gas travelling through this section of the pipeline will be raw gas.
The second reason behind the anxiety felt by the local people is the secrecy surrounding the Quantity Risk Assessment (QRA). Shell refused to publish the original QRA and instead attempted to satisfy the local people with a reviewed, non- technical summary. This summery was conducted by a company with which Shell have a very close association.

Allied to the massive potential for environmental disaster and loss of life with the unprecedented upstream raw gas pipeline, we express huge concern for the refinery proposed for Bellanaboy Wood, which is clearly in breach of the Seveso Directive. The proposed insane movement of 600,000 tonnes of bog slurry from the site of the proposed refinery, along a poor road infrastructure only recently marginally improved, to a dumping ground beside Carrowmore Lake which is the drinking water supply for the Erris region and also a sensitive salmon spawning ground; also raises serious concern.
If the people of Norway and it’s government knew the full picture we are sure that they would not allow these unsustainable, unethical and severely damaging actions to be taken under their name.

This unprecedented project is also in direct violation of Agenda 21, according to Principle 15, “the precautionary approach shall be widely applied”.
Many of the local people in this community are genuinely fearful for their future. Safety standards are not being adhered to and this is unacceptable.

Shell to Sea would like to express their surprise and shock at Statoil, who are renowned for their high safety standards, at allowing Shell to push through this unprecedented pipeline and on-shore terminal. We are calling on the Norwegian Government to encourage Statoil to practice safety standards in North Mayo that they would practice in Norway. Shell to Sea would also like to call for an independent QRA and its full and complete publication to the members of the local community.

Shell to Sea would greatly appreciate any attention given to this issue and urge Statoil to maintain their safety conscious reputation, by along with Marathon, overruling Shells determination to force through a gas delivery infrastructure that is clearly not best practice and instead, push for the proper method of dealing with this gas which is the construction of a shallow water platform to clean this gas at sea, as is the Norwegian way. The people of Ireland expect nothing less.

Thank you for taking the time to read this letter and we eagerly await your response.

Yours truly,

Shell to Sea, Galway Branch on behalf of members of the Erris Community

Please forward any future correspondence to,
Mícheál ó Seighin, Ceathrú Thaidhg, Ballina P.O., Co. Mayo, Ireland