Corrib project gets €80m cash injection

SHELL IRELAND has received an €80m cash injection to complete works to allow gas be taken from the Corrib gas field.

The cash to Shell E&P Ireland Ltd from its parent company is confirmed in documents recently lodged with the Companies Registration Office.

The cash represents a 23% increase in the firm’s share capital to €424m.

A spokesman for Shell E&P Ireland Ltd confirmed yesterday that the injection of equity “is towards the operational expenses in relation to the ongoing development of the Corrib project”.

The Corrib field could produce enough gas to meet 75% of Ireland’s peak winter gas needs for up to a decade.

The documents show the cash injection was made since An Bord Pleanála found that up to half of Shell’s proposed route for its controversial Corrib gas onshore pipeline in Co Mayo is “unacceptable” on safety grounds.

The injection brings to €170m the amount of new funding Shell has provided to its Irish subsidiary to complete the project in the last 12 months.

A subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell plc, Shell E&P Ireland Ltd has until the end of May to provide to An Bord Pleanála revised proposals for an alternative pipeline route to bring the gas onshore.

A company spokesman said yesterday that the Bellanaboy refinery is 87% complete and should be largely complete before the end of the year.

He said 700 people are employed at Bellanaboy but this will reduce significantly over the course of the year and be 300 to 350 by the third quarter.

The spokesman said it was too early to speculate on when exactly the project will be complete.

Since its inception to the end of December 2008, the partners involved in the project have spent €1.494bn, between a capital outlay of €1.2bn and operational costs of €277m.

The final overall spend on the project is expected to breach €2bn.