Shell to Sea

[Mayo4Sam]

Muppet you know as well as I do that there are differences between exploration in an area where oil/gas has been previously found and one where none has. There should be massive interest in these licences and there isn't due to Corrib.

[muppet]

You know as well as I do that it is a bear market, there is no credit and investors are hiding. Oil exploration would be bottom of the list for speculators. And yet it sold out. If this was the bond market Michael Noonan would be a hero.

We would be better off giving the gas/oil to Sean Quinn (and telling him no borrowing against it).

At least he would create loads of jobs on the back of it.

[muppet]

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/f4ebf86c-ff14-11e0-9769-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1buDxSH7H

As a result, the government of Cyprus is already examining the multibillion-dollar sovereign wealth funds of Norway and Qatar for ideas on how to operate an investment fund of its own, if and when the cash comes rolling in. "There's a climate of euphoria in Cyprus," confesses Praxoula Antoniadou, the island state's industry minister.


High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f4ebf86c-ff14-11e0-9769-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz1buFaxfxd

Cyprus may choose to create a national energy champion, as Norway did when it established Statoil in 1972, he observed. "If so, the company should be run like a private company. It should have independent directors and should be quoted on a major stock exchange."
Mr Horn, who is deputy chief executive officer of the Renaissance Group, an investment company that specialises in emerging markets, said that if Cyprus set up a wealth fund, "everything you earn offshore should go into the fund and only a little bit should trickle out [for current expenditure]".

Where is our sovereign wealth fund?

We don't get a cent for the gas. We will eventually get a tax on profits. Big deal. Every business pays tax on profits. But not every business gets a free gas field.

[thejuice]

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2012/0201/1224311046794.html

INITIAL INDICATIONS from exploration drilling in the northwest show that the area could hold enough natural gas to supply Irish needs for 12 years and create a total of 3,000 jobs.

Tamboran Resources, which has exploration drilling licences on both sides of the Border in the northwest region, said yesterday that its initial studies have confirmed the existence of a "substantial natural gas field" in northern Leitrim.

The company has already been the focus of a series of protests in the region because it is proposing to extract the gas using hydraulic fracturing – or fracking – a technique that has been blamed in the US for contaminating water supplies and other environmental problems.

Tamboran's findings suggest that production there could ultimately reach 2.2 trillion cubic feet of gas, worth $55 billion at yesterday's prices, which were around $2.50 per 1,000 cubic feet in New York.

The company said yesterday that the field could hold the equivalent of 12 years worth of Irish daily natural gas consumption.

Over 90 per cent of the natural gas consumed here every day is imported and the fuel is used to generate more than 60 per cent of electricity supplies.

Tamboran yesterday estimated that the Leitrim field would substantially cut these imports for up to 40 years and argued that it would help secure future energy supplies for the island of Ireland.

In a statement, chief executive, Richard Moorman, confirmed that Tamboran's initial analysis suggests the presence of very substantial shale gas reserves in the north Leitrim area.

"Allowing for even modest rates of recovery, the energy and economic benefits would be tremendous," he claimed.

The statement said that if the field were commercially developed, this would create 600 jobs directly and the knock-on effect would result in a further 2,400 new jobs.

It could also yield a substantial benefit for the State, which could get €4.9 billion in corporate, exploration and employment taxes.

Tamboran says it intends investing €7 billion in the region. Along with this, if the find hits its commercial targets, it has pledged to create a local investment fund that will channel €2 million a year into Leitrim.

Late last year, Mr Moorman told The Irish Times that the company had talks with Sligo Institute of Technology about the possibility of providing training for prospective workers.

Tamboran only holds exploration licences for the area. If it wants to go ahead and begin extracting the gas, it has to apply to the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources for further permits allowing it to do this.

In the meantime, Minister for Energy Pat Rabbitte has asked the Environmental Protection Agency to commission an independent study into the practice.

Fracking involves pumping large quantities of water at a rock face, deep underground, to create fissures or cracks through which natural gas can escape and be captured. It is used on rock types that are not porous enough to allow gas to be extracted by normal drilling techniques. The rocks are mainly shale, which is why the fuel extracted by fracking is known as "shale gas".

Tamboran plans to drill at 500m-1,500m under ground, using drill bits sealed in chambers constructed of steel pipe and cement designed to prevent contamination of soil or groundwater.

While chemicals are normally used in the process as lubricants, Mr Moorman has said Tamboran believes they would not be necessary in Leitrim.

Last month, the company issued a statement saying that it supports tough regulation and full-scale monitoring, embracing boreholes and drilling, seismic activity, and air and water quality.

Tamboran is one of three companies carrying out onshore natural gas exploration in Ireland.

Tamboran is a privately held Australian and Canadian-based exploration company with licences and assets in Ireland, Australia and Africa.

[Denn Forever]

Contentious issue around these parts.  Does anyone know of where Fracking occurs without environmental issues?

Below taken from http://www.gaslandthemovie.com/whats-fracking which is one side of the argument.

How does hydraulic fracturing work?
Hydraulic fracturing or fracking is a means of natural gas extraction employed in deep natural gas well drilling. Once a well is drilled, millions of gallons of water, sand and proprietary chemicals are injected, under high pressure, into a well. The pressure fractures the shale and props open fissures that enable natural gas to flow more freely out of the well.

What is horizontal hydraulic fracturing?
Horizontal hydrofracking is a means of tapping shale deposits containing natural gas that were previously inaccessible by conventional drilling. Vertical hydrofracking is used to extend the life of an existing well once its productivity starts to run out, sort of a last resort. Horizontal fracking differs in that it uses a mixture of 596 chemicals, many of them proprietary, and millions of gallons of water per frack. This water then becomes contaminated and must be cleaned and disposed of. 

How deep do natural gas wells go?
The average well is up to 8,000 feet deep. The depth of drinking water aquifers is about 1,000 feet. The problems typically stem from poor cement well casings that leak natural gas as well as fracking fluid into water wells.

[muppet]

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2012/0201/1224311046794.html

INITIAL INDICATIONS from exploration drilling in the northwest show that the area could hold enough natural gas to supply Irish needs for 12 years and create a total of 3,000 jobs.

Tamboran Resources, which has exploration drilling licences on both sides of the Border in the northwest region, said yesterday that its initial studies have confirmed the existence of a "substantial natural gas field" in northern Leitrim.

The company has already been the focus of a series of protests in the region because it is proposing to extract the gas using hydraulic fracturing – or fracking – a technique that has been blamed in the US for contaminating water supplies and other environmental problems.

Tamboran's findings suggest that production there could ultimately reach 2.2 trillion cubic feet of gas, worth $55 billion at yesterday's prices, which were around $2.50 per 1,000 cubic feet in New York.

The company said yesterday that the field could hold the equivalent of 12 years worth of Irish daily natural gas consumption.

Over 90 per cent of the natural gas consumed here every day is imported and the fuel is used to generate more than 60 per cent of electricity supplies.

Tamboran yesterday estimated that the Leitrim field would substantially cut these imports for up to 40 years and argued that it would help secure future energy supplies for the island of Ireland.

In a statement, chief executive, Richard Moorman, confirmed that Tamboran's initial analysis suggests the presence of very substantial shale gas reserves in the north Leitrim area.

"Allowing for even modest rates of recovery, the energy and economic benefits would be tremendous," he claimed.

The statement said that if the field were commercially developed, this would create 600 jobs directly and the knock-on effect would result in a further 2,400 new jobs.

It could also yield a substantial benefit for the State, which could get €4.9 billion in corporate, exploration and employment taxes.

Tamboran says it intends investing €7 billion in the region. Along with this, if the find hits its commercial targets, it has pledged to create a local investment fund that will channel €2 million a year into Leitrim.

Late last year, Mr Moorman told The Irish Times that the company had talks with Sligo Institute of Technology about the possibility of providing training for prospective workers.

Tamboran only holds exploration licences for the area. If it wants to go ahead and begin extracting the gas, it has to apply to the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources for further permits allowing it to do this.

In the meantime, Minister for Energy Pat Rabbitte has asked the Environmental Protection Agency to commission an independent study into the practice.

Fracking involves pumping large quantities of water at a rock face, deep underground, to create fissures or cracks through which natural gas can escape and be captured. It is used on rock types that are not porous enough to allow gas to be extracted by normal drilling techniques. The rocks are mainly shale, which is why the fuel extracted by fracking is known as "shale gas".

Tamboran plans to drill at 500m-1,500m under ground, using drill bits sealed in chambers constructed of steel pipe and cement designed to prevent contamination of soil or groundwater.

While chemicals are normally used in the process as lubricants, Mr Moorman has said Tamboran believes they would not be necessary in Leitrim.

Last month, the company issued a statement saying that it supports tough regulation and full-scale monitoring, embracing boreholes and drilling, seismic activity, and air and water quality.

Tamboran is one of three companies carrying out onshore natural gas exploration in Ireland.

Tamboran is a privately held Australian and Canadian-based exploration company with licences and assets in Ireland, Australia and Africa.

enough natural gas to supply Irish needs for 12 years and create a total of 3,000 jobs.

The amount of gas is irrelevant if we simply give it away for free again. We will shortly pay more for the wet stuff that falls out of the sky than the likes of Shell pay for our finite natural Gas.

[ludermor]

When it rains in Spain these days, it truly pours misery. Argentina announced on Monday that it is planning to nationalise an oil company, YPF, in which a Spanish firm, Repsol, has a majority stake. Coming at a time when the government in Madrid has just rammed through the most severe budget since the death of General Franco, this must feel like an economic insult for Spain on top of already intolerable injury.

The Spanish government has promised an "overwhelming" response to the threat to Repsol's financial interests in Argentina and the country's Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, is in South America to gather support from friendly governments such as Mexico and Colombia.

The Spanish company's shares fell by as much as 9 per cent yesterday. European Commission President José Manuel Barroso weighed in, saying he expected Argentina to abide by agreements. "I am seriously disappointed about the announcement," he said.

Madrid summoned Argentina's ambassador, Carlos Bettini, as the dispute threatened to evolve into an all-out trade war. "With this hostility, there will be consequences... in the diplomatic field, in the industrial field and on energy," Spain's Industry Minister, José Manuel Soria, said.

But the bitter truth is that Spain is in no real position to win battles abroad. Preventing the roof from falling in at home over the coming months will be difficult enough. Spanish unemployment levels, which were painfully high even in the boom years of the last decade, are now comparable to those seen in America in the depths of the Great Depression. Some 23 per cent of Spaniards are out of work, and youth unemployment in Spain has reached an agonising 50 per cent.

And, most alarming of all, Spain's borrowing costs have jumped in recent weeks, raising the prospect of national bankruptcy. The yield – or interest rate – on 10-year Spanish debt rose above 6 per cent in trading this week as investors' doubts intensified about the ability of the Madrid government to avoid having to seek a bailout from its European Union partners and the International Monetary Fund.

There will be an important new test of market sentiment tomorrow when Madrid attempts to raise €2.5bn in a medium-term debt auction. If investors refuse to lend to the Spanish government, or will only do so at punitively high interest rates, the panic will increase.

The government wisely took the opportunity of the period of calm in capital markets earlier this year to issue half of the debt it needs to finance its spending this year. But Madrid still needs a further €40bn to see it through to the end of 2012. If medium-term Spanish interest rates rise about 7 per cent, analysts predict that Madrid will be unable to avoid following Greece, Ireland and Portugal, and collapsing into the arms of the fraying EU safety net.

So how did Spain get here? European policymakers, particularly German ones, claim that "excessive state spending" was the root of the eurozone debt crisis. But while that was true of Greece, it was not the case in Spain, where the government ran a budget surplus going into the 2008 global banking crisis. What has dragged Spain to the brink of collapse is a massive housing and construction bubble which exploded four years ago.

The country's banking system is its weakest point. Last month Spanish banks were forced to borrow €316bn euros from the European Central Bank (ECB) because they could not raise credit from other European banks. Analysts estimate Spanish institutions to be sitting on unrecognised losses to property companies of up to €100bn.

Worse, the fates of Spain's weak banks are now entwined with the fate of the government in Madrid. The ECB flooded the European banking system with liquidity in December and February. Spanish banks used the cheap ECB loans to buy up Spanish government bonds, driving down Madrid's borrowing costs. But now, with sovereign interest rates up and fears rising about the health of Spanish banks, that virtuous circle has turned vicious. The more investors panic about Spanish banks, the more they panic about the Spanish state, and vice versa.

Can Spain make it without seeking help from abroad? That depends on whether Spain can regain the confidence of investors and generate the growth it requires to soften the impact of the austerity blows in store. The government plans to reduce its budget deficit from 8.5 per cent of GDP in 2011 to 5.3 per cent by the end of the year. To achieve this, it has outlined spending cuts and tax rises, over one year, adding up to €27bn.

But markets are waking up to the fact that all this austerity could prove self-defeating, sucking demand out of the economy as public-sector workers are laid off, taxes go up and government investment programmes are shelved. According to the IMF, the Spanish economy will contract by 1.8 per cent this year. That will push record unemployment and general misery still higher. Desperate though the Spanish population might already feel, the country's economic trials are only just beginning.

- Ben Chu

[muppet]

It will be interesting to see how that goes alright.

If nothing happens we would be insane not to do the same, although I expect there will be serious recriminations. Our route to our gas would have to be more sophisticated than Argentina's.

[ludermor]

By Telegraph Staff

10:51AM BST 19 Apr 2012

Comments52 Comments

Senator Anibal Fernandez, speaking to reporters after senate committees approved a bill to allow the government to nationalise 51pc of YPF, said the bill includes the expropriation of Repsol's local gas company.

He didn't name the company. but according to Repsol YPF's latest 20-F filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the Spanish company participates in the distribution of natural gas in Argentina through Gas Natural Ban and YPF subsidiary Metrogas.

Gas Natural Ban sells gas to about 1.4m customers in Buenos Aires, Argentina's most densely populated urban area.

The bill, which will be put to a vote before the full Senate next week before going to the Lower House, will give the government sweeping powers to regulate the oil and gas industry.

The action will add to anger in Madrid over the nationlisation of the South American country's leading oil company.
Related Articles

   
'We won't pay compensation'

On Wednesday, Argentina's deputy economy minister Axel Kicillof raised the stakes in the international row over the country's raid on YPF-Repsol by pledging politicians in Buenos Aires: "We're not going to pay what they say."

He made the provocative statement at the start of a parliamentary debate on the expropriation of the company that is 57pc owned by Spain's Repsol.

The Spanish company repeated demands for at least $10bn (£6.24bn) of compensation in exchange for the assets that Argentina plans to re-nationalise. Repsol said that YPF, which it bought from the Argentine government for $15bn in 1999, was worth a total of $18bn and it was seeking compensation on that basis.

Britain waded into the escalating diplomatic war that has rallied to Repsol's defence.

William Hague said he was "very concerned" about the move by Argentina's president, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, and said the country was in breach of its G20 commitments.

"This is the latest in a series of trade and investment related actions taken by Argentina which are damaging to business interests and will undermine Argentina's economy by reducing its attractiveness to international investors," he said.

The Foreign Secretary added: "The Argentine Government has made no secret of the fact that it wishes to reduce imports and boost its domestic trade surplus through a variety of restrictive trade measures.

"This goes against all the commitments Argentina has made in the G20 to promote transparency and reduce protectionism. We will work with Spain and our EU partners to ensure the Argentine authorities uphold their international commitments and obligations."

Meanwhile, Madrid fired more warnings on behalf of Repsol. Spanish Industry Minister Jose Manuel Soria promised "consequences" in the coming days. "They will be in the diplomatic field, the industrial field, and on energy," he said.

Mariano Rajoy, who is in Mexico trying to win support at the World Economic Forum, said Argentina's move was a "negative decision for everyone". The Spanish prime minister, who has little capacity for another financial crisis, added: "I must express my profound unease."

The Spanish cabinet is due to meet on Friday to agree a path of action against Argentina.

However, experts warned that Argentina was likely to remain unmoved under the international pressure. In her five years as president Ms Fernandez de Kirchner has raided state pension funds and increased import taxes without yielding to loud criticism from home and abroad.

Last year Argentina's bill for oil imports shot up 110pc to $9.4bn. In recent weeks, Ms Fernandez de Kirchner has said Repsol had not invested enough in YPF to extract Argentina's oil. The company denies the claim.

Argentina's move reportedly scuppered Repsol's plans to sell YPF to China's Sinopec for $15bn.

[ludermor]

It will be interesting to see how that goes alright.

If nothing happens we would be insane not to do the same, although I expect there will be serious recriminations. Our route to our gas would have to be more sophisticated than Argentina's.

Agree 100% . The Argentines must be enbracing the south american left wing policies!

[give her dixie]

Have been following the trucks that were carrying the large Boring machines for Shell this week.
One of the trucks weighed 172 tonnes, and the others were not far behind.

En route in Mayo, they were met with several protests, and while trying to make a turn on a bog road, two trucks went off the road and got stuck in the bog.

While the protesters didn't succeed in stopping them, the bog certainly did. They were stuck from Tuesday until today due to the fact that there were no cranes available to lift 172 tonnes, and protesters managed to delay equipment en route to help.

Anyhow, they finally got moving today.

This is a good video of the protest, and of the trucks that got stuck.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsXiduucx6w


Irish Times article:

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2012/0803/breaking39.html

[magpie seanie]

Feckers held me up with the dual carriageway being blocked so they could transport this gear. I spotted 7 squad cars in and around the junction that they held all up at. I expect Shell are footing the overtime bill.

[the Deel Rover]

Feckers held me up with the dual carriageway being blocked so they could transport this gear. I spotted 7 squad cars in and around the junction that they held all up at. I expect Shell are footing the overtime bill.

There was some convoy allright Seanie here is a Video someone took of it going through Crossmolina .http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHLPSwP7RRM&feature=player_detailpage

[Lar Naparka]

Feckers held me up with the dual carriageway being blocked so they could transport this gear. I spotted 7 squad cars in and around the junction that they held all up at. I expect Shell are footing the overtime bill.

There was some convoy allright Seanie here is a Video someone took of it going through Crossmolina .http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHLPSwP7RRM&feature=player_detailpage

How could anyone think that the roads around Bellanaboy would be able to bear such heavy loads. One of them yokes was bad enough but a convoy of them was always going to end in disaster.

[magpie seanie]

Feckers held me up with the dual carriageway being blocked so they could transport this gear. I spotted 7 squad cars in and around the junction that they held all up at. I expect Shell are footing the overtime bill.

There was some convoy allright Seanie here is a Video someone took of it going through Crossmolina .http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHLPSwP7RRM&feature=player_detailpage

How could anyone think that the roads around Bellanaboy would be able to bear such heavy loads. One of them yokes was bad enough but a convoy of them was always going to end in disaster.

That would seem to be typical of the thought and consideration given to this entire affair by the powers that be from what I can see. Something eerie or not right about this.