Permission for Corrib gas field marketing plan refused

The European Commission is to block a proposed joint gas marketing venture between Enterprise Energy Ireland, Norway's Statoil and US company Marathon Oil because it considers it anti-competitive.

The three companies had been waiting for EU approval to market the gas from the Corrib field off the Mayo coast, which is estimated to have 30bn cubic metres of gas reserves.

The project was due to go into operation in 2003, serving the main markets of Dublin, Cork and Limerick.

EU spokeswoman Amelia Torres said the Commission was opposed to the move because "consumers must have a real choice of supplier".

However, the decision does not affect the agreement between the companies to develop the field.

Ireland's largest existing field in use off Kinsale, Co Cork, is estimated to have two to three years' worth of supply left.