Barryroe energy drilling license rejection

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joe sod

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www.irishtimes.com

Barryroe offered merger option that could allow it to pursue State compensation

Minister did not grant permit to progress work on gas and oil field off Cork coast
www.irishtimes.com www.irishtimes.com

I see barryroe energy and landsdown energy are to pursue legal action against the Irish government and eamon Ryan the minister for energy over their rejection of the drilling licence for barryroe prospect.
Their main basis for action is that the licence was rejected on ideological grounds rather than deficiencies (department of energy reasoning) in the licence application itself.
It looks like the government could be on the hook for 100million compensation if it is pursued by landsdown energy a UK company through international arbitration.
One of the reasons given by the department of environment was that they were not happy with the funding behind the companies, this is rubbish because Barryroe energy is now being bankrolled by non other than Larry Goodman.
Another line of attack is that the department needlessly sat on their hands for 2 years over this decision.
It all points to an ideological decision taken by eamon Ryan's department because politically he could not be seen to green light irelands first commercial oil and gas prospect
 
joe sod said:
One of the reasons given by the department of environment was that they were not happy with the funding behind the companies, this is rubbish because Barryroe energy is now being bankrolled by non other than Larry Goodman.
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From the article...
However, the Department of the Environment told Barryroe last Friday that the Minister’s decision was based on the applicant not meeting “investment cover criterion” in guidelines for offshore oil and gas exploration applications. The guidelines, issued in 2019, say licence applicants should have net tangible assets of 3½ times the cost of planned work.

That suggests that the applicants need net tangible assets of €140 million – a multiple of their existing position.
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But this is bad news for Ireland's overall reputation because a government department has to be seen to be above board and not making decisions on ideological grounds. The fact that these companies met all of the criteria, invested alot of money based on due process and that the Irish government would make their decision based on fairness and on the licence application itself and carry it out in a timely manner.
It appears that this did not happen and that eamon Ryan's ideological position on oil exploration along with others in that department was really behind this decision .
This would be analogous to Venezuela or Cuba making decisions on ideological grounds simply because they didn't like US companies. This isn't going away though
 
www.thephoenix.ie

BARRYROE SAGA STARTING TO LOOK VERY EXPENSIVE

THE SAGA of the attempts by Barryroe Offshore Energy (BOE) to develop a huge oil and gas field off the south coast of Ireland continues to cause headaches and, utterly unsurprisingly, assorted legal eagles have now been called into the fray. This follows on foot... Read more »
www.thephoenix.ie

Most comprehensive article I have read on the barryroe licence saga that could end up costing the government hundreds of millions in compensation, larry Goodman has petitioned the high court to appoint an examiner to this case and landsdown energy is suiing the Irish government under the energy charter treaty , another exploration company has won a similar case against the Italian government recently. Here is an extract

" This story clearly has a long way to run yet and could end up costing the taxpayer a pretty penny. Ryan could well be called upon to justify his department’s approach to the Barryroe oil field, which currently looks to have verged on reckless given Ireland’s dependence on imported energy."
 
joe sod said:
" This story clearly has a long way to run yet and could end up costing the taxpayer a pretty penny.
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Agreed.

joe sod said:
Ryan could well be called upon to justify his department’s approach to the Barryroe oil field, which currently looks to have verged on reckless given Ireland’s dependence on imported energy."
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Problem is that Ryan will be retired (having lost his seat) and be sitting in his comfy armchair watching the cricket on his 56" tv screen long before this comes to court. Hence it will fall to whoever the Secretary General of the Department of Energy is in a few years' time to try to defend this strange decision, the poor sod!
 
www.irishtimes.com

Larry Goodman continues to eye developing Irish oil field after licence expiry

Rescue bid by now 88-year-old beef tycoon centred on possibility that explorer could move focus to green energy projects
www.irishtimes.com www.irishtimes.com

I see Larry goodman still has hopes that he will get the go ahead to develop barryroe after eamon ryan refused to grant drilling licence in 2023. Ireland still heavily reliant on fossil fuels most of it imported from US . Also in light of Russian invasion of Ukraine many European countries are looking to develop their own fields independent of Russian supplies. The whole moratorium on developing oil and gas seems over the top given what is happening globally now
 
The issue is that companies before Larry Goodman bought in spent alot of money drilling and proving up the find at barryroe. They entered into it in good faith given that it was already under the previous license agreement granted in 2011. Eamon Ryan and department of environment used a spurious argument that the company did not have the technical or financial means to bring the project to production. I think an English company Lansdowne energy have brought it to the European court although haven't heard anything in the last year or so. For some reason Larry Goodman has not joined Lansdowne in the court case, maybe because it's only a small thing to him and he doesn't want to ruffle any feathers in the government since he has much bigger fish in the beef processing industry in Ireland. He probably doesn't want a load of media attention again so is trying to get movement on it in the backgrounds
 
As far as I know, Barryroe could not sue as they are an Irish registered company and because Lansdowne is UK registered, they could.
 
Ravima said:
We have the Green's to thank for this debacle.
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They had 12 out of 85 seats in the coalition and yet they had control of the entire government. Remarkable. The Greens really are the most effective political party in the history of the state.

FF + FG supported Barryroe in the past. Ryan may be living in people's heads rent free but he is long gone from government - I wonder what Darragh O'Brien has been doing about it for the past 9 months...
 
Will this silly decision come back to haunt the government, with oil prices surging past $100 and possibility of actual shortages with strait of hormuz closed, was it beyond stupid for the then energy minister (eamon ryan) to refuse a drilling licence on barryroe our only potential oil field with proven reserves?
 
m.independent.ie

David W Higgins: Why Ireland’s ban on nuclear power and offshore drilling should be lifted

It's week four of the energy crisis, meaning this column has no choice. Week four of writing about it.
m.independent.ie m.independent.ie

Media coming around to the view that we need to lift the ban on exploration for oil and gas and nuclear power. There is no way renewables can provide all of our energy needs. The closure of the straits of hormuz and its effects on the global economy have made that blatantly obvious now. In reality renewables have replaced the power that used to come from coal in electrical power , however we are now more dependant on oil and gas for transport and backup power when wind not blowing or sun shining
 
Its this blind (and ignorant) article of faith stuff that really winds me up, any amount of interest groups ideologically opposed to nuclear, oil/gas drilling, LNG import facilities etc etc but the very same people have zero answers for strategic national energy resilience and are never called out on it
 
joe sod said:
The closure of the straits of hormuz and its effects on the global economy have made that blatantly obvious now.
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The only thing the events of recent weeks have shown is how our continued dependence on fossil fuels leaves us venerable to the whims of others. Renewables aren't replacing FFs because every time we add capacity to the grid, it is sucked up by data centres and other high energy demands. Is there anything to be said for unlimited growth in a system of hard limits?
 
www.offshore-energy.biz

Ireland hit with multimillion-dollar arbitration claim over oil & gas project

Lansdowne has embarked on an arbitration battle to pursue its Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) claim against Ireland over an oil and gas field.
www.offshore-energy.biz www.offshore-energy.biz

I see landsdowne energy one of the owners of the barryroe prospect has now advanced a case against the irish government over its rejection of the drilling licence in 2023 by eamon ryan. It is before an international court in washington in which ireland is a party too under the energy charter treaty. Apparently another exploration company won 200 million compensation from the italian government under very similar circumstances where the italian government refused a drilling licence . That company was rockhopper exploration which has also discovered a huge but very controversial new oil and gas field off the falkland islands. That is the main reason why the whole issue of falklands soverignty is back in the news.
 
Pushing back against the destruction of liveable planet because of climate change is perhaps an ideology we could get behind, no? I would suggest there's quite the imperative to do so.

I'm not sure how long is it since we were told to stop extracting fossil fuels or investing in new infrastructure for same.
 
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