Drilling ‘has 10,000 jobs potential’

Ireland’s burgeoning offshore oil and gas industry has the potential to produce between 10,000 and 15,000 jobs per year and substantially increase the exchequer’s annual corporate tax take; but only if some existing barriers to entry for overseas players are removed, according to a new report.

The ‘Making the Most of our Natural Resources’ study — undertaken by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and commissioned by Providence Resources — claims that, with the right supporting conditions in place, if Ireland were to have 10 commercial Barryroe-style fields in operation, an average of 13,500 jobs could be maintained per year, during the average 10-year development phase, with 11,500 a year produced during the average 25-year production phase.

PwC also claims, in the newly published report, that even a single producing field, such as Barryroe, could bring in about €4.5bn in corporate tax and profit resource rent tax over its lifespan; which would equate to the Government’s total corporate tax take in 2011.