Bring the pipe to Statoil...

dublin | rights, freedoms and repression | event notice Wednesday April 05, 2006 08:39 by anarchaeologist - Shell to Sea Dublin 086 8537281

Demo outside Statoil HQ in the IFSC at 12.45

Anyone pissed off by the huge profits to be made by Statoil, by ripping off the Irish tax payer and compromising the health and safety of the people of Erris might want to come along Friday lunchtime.

We'll be bringing a section of unwanted gas pipe to to Statoil HQ, deep in the black heart of the IFSC, a private area where dissent is forbidden.

Meet at 12.45 at the northern side of the new footbridge beyond the Custom House. Bring whistles/hooters etc.

Why are we protesting at Statoil? Statoil owns 36.5% of the Corrib Field, with Shell having a 45% take and Marathon Oil cashing in on 18.5%.

Norway owns 70.5% of STATOIL so we have a situation where the Norwegian state will own over 1/3 of the gas passing through the high-pressure pipeline in Rossport while the people of Ireland will get nothing.

Who controls the rest of Ireland's natural resources?

Thanks to a cabal of corrupt/inept politicans the multinational oil companies own 100% of our natural resources. This leaves nothing for the people of Ireland.

So what’s the deal?

From 1975 there was a tax rate of 50% for oil and gas companies, an automatic 50% state take in any commercial well and royalties of 6%-7%. In 1987, after lobbying by the companies, Fianna Fail got rid of the 50% stake and removed the royalties. In 1992 after further lobbying they reduced the tax rate to 25% and 100% tax write-offs were introduced, meaning that companies can now subtract their costs from their tax bill.

In 1996 the licence for the Corrib gas field was granted to Enterprise Energy Ireland, a subsidiary of Enterprise Oil, which has since been bought out by Shell. The consortium also includes Statoil and Marathon Oil.

Enterprise Oil held major fundraising events for Fianna Fáil at the Galway Races in 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2001. Other contractors involved are also major Fianna Fáil donators. The then Minister Frank Fahey granted them innumerable licences before the planning procedures were over and gave them 400 acres plus of state forest on which to build the refinery. Bertie Ahern has had many meetings with Shell on this issue.The deal is that the pipelines, running to Dublin and Scotland will be constructed by the state while a great deal of the infrastructure, new roads and bridges is already being built by the state.

Some of the gas that is not exported will be purchased back by the state, at the full commercial rate. Theses companies have a track record of not employing Irish rig workers. According to Mike Cunningham, a former director of Statoil Exploration (Ireland): ‘No other country in the world has gioven such favourable terms as Ireland’. In other places in Europe, the state take can be 55% or even 79% of a field.

We need to force Statoil to reconsider their activities in Ireland, their business associations with Shell and their cosy relations with our government.