Gas field reserves to be downgraded

THE Seven Heads gas field off the Cork coast suffered a major setback yesterday as its operator, Scottish energy firm Ramco, said they were preparing to downgrade the value and amount of reserves in the field.

The move sent the company’s shares plummeting by 60%.

The reassessment of the reserves in the gas reservoir is the second blow for the company this year, after it had seen product of gas slow significantly due to water in the wells. It had expected to extract 60 million cubic feet of gas from the wells but it had fallen to an average of 40mmscf.