Ireland swimming in oil

[seabhcan]

I was talking to a friend in the oil industry who claims Ireland has a large amount of oil off the North Mayo coast. With 150 dollar oil, this is now ecomonical to exploit.

The problem is that the Shell-to-sea experience has made the oil companies nervous about starting new projects here. They find it too complicated to deal with overlapping government departments, local activists and slow planning permission systems. Sweep all that away, I'm told, set up a Minister for Oil with power to override local concerns, and Ireland can be another Norway.

Personnally, I'm not sure it would be worth it.

[eyeSpy]

personally i feel the oil should be left there as a pension for the state until we can use it efficiently but the strategic infrastructure bill sorted the planning issue.
Norway is an example to the world on how to manage it's natural resources.
massive gas reserves and they generate 98% of their electricity through hydro.
massive cash reserves as a result.

[Victor Meldrew]

personally i feel the oil should be left there as a pension for the state until we can use it efficiently but the strategic infrastructure bill sorted the planning issue.
Norway is an example to the world on how to manage it's natural resources.
massive gas reserves and they generate 98% of their electricity through hydro.
massive cash reserves as a result.

We'll have none of your prudence here ....

agreed though.... Do we own the rights to it though...........?

[smitchy2]

It is certainly worth investigation.
We like to be hypocritical in this country though and pretend to be green.
But waste far more energy and money by importing all our oil and also tapping up our electricity supplies sourced from British nuclear power.
No won't own the rights to it though, as the oil companies make the massive investment of exploration but we will have it on our doorsteps and will get the tax returns.

[seabhcan]

It is certainly worth investigation.
We like to be hypocritical in this country though and pretend to be green.
But waste far more energy and money by importing all our oil and also tapping up our electricity supplies sourced from British nuclear power.
No won't own the rights to it though, as the oil companies make the massive investment of exploration but we will have it on our doorsteps and will get the tax returns.

Norway has a 90% tax on the oil industry. My experience is that Norway isn't such a paradise. Inflation is shocking. Oslo is a dump. Bad food, ugly modern skyscrapers, a bum on every street corner. Imagine Texas with worse weather.

Ireland has done better with less money.

[kerrynorth]

It is certainly worth investigation.
We like to be hypocritical in this country though and pretend to be green.
But waste far more energy and money by importing all our oil and also tapping up our electricity supplies sourced from British nuclear power.
No won't own the rights to it though, as the oil companies make the massive investment of exploration but we will have it on our doorsteps and will get the tax returns.

Norway has a 90% tax on the oil industry. My experience is that Norway isn't such a paradise. Inflation is shocking. Oslo is a dump. Bad food, ugly modern skyscrapers, a bum on every street corner. Imagine Texas with worse weather.

Ireland has done better with less money.

This opinion you have of Norway would'nt have anything to do with them rejecting the EU in a referendum, would it?
BTW were they told to vote a second time and to give the right answer this time - just asking like? :mrgreen:

[seabhcan]

It is certainly worth investigation.
We like to be hypocritical in this country though and pretend to be green.
But waste far more energy and money by importing all our oil and also tapping up our electricity supplies sourced from British nuclear power.
No won't own the rights to it though, as the oil companies make the massive investment of exploration but we will have it on our doorsteps and will get the tax returns.

Norway has a 90% tax on the oil industry. My experience is that Norway isn't such a paradise. Inflation is shocking. Oslo is a dump. Bad food, ugly modern skyscrapers, a bum on every street corner. Imagine Texas with worse weather.

Ireland has done better with less money.

This opinion you have of Norway would'nt have anything to do with them rejecting the EU in a referendum, would it?
BTW were they told to vote a second time and to give the right answer this time - just asking like? :mrgreen:

You are nothing if not single minded.

For those who haven't been there, this is what oslo looks like:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/trondjs/2492743115/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ausfi/1445003855/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mazarin-/2513849439/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamieca/180944367/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rickabbott/538148012/

[StripeyCat]

Norway, instead of spending their oil money , put it into a reserve for the future which is pretty big now.

We have the unusual system of simply not taking any royalties from our natural resources at all, so there won't be any benefit even if the Atlantic coastline was sitting on a vast reservoir of oil and gas, which many people in the know say it is.

Under current licences, the ones that Eamon Ryan is giving out to the likes of Shell and EXXON at the moment, not a drop of oil will belong to us. We say we might get some tax off them in the future but we make it incredibly easy for them to avoid paying tax to us.

The "Shell to Sea experience" has shown that the Irish govt will support the oil companies against the local population- even locking them up if necessary. What more could they want?

[Squire Allworthy]

The Northern part in winter is an experience everyone should have and carrots must be the national dish. No wonder the Vikings had the motivation to get in their boats and row to find land to settle in.

[ulsterfan]

Leave the oil there for a few more decades and then when the Republic come courting the unionists in the North the oil could be your dowry in place of the 8 billion we get from Westminster each Year.
After all we will not sell ourselves cheaply.