The three companies involved in the development of the Corrib gasfield off the coast of Mayo will sell their shares of the gas separately, having withdrawn an application to the European Commission to market the gas jointly. This means that Enterprise Energy, Marathon Petroleum and Statoil Ireland will compete with each other to sell gas piped from the same field.
"The Commission welcomes the decision of the Corrib owners to market the gas individually, which will give gas consumers in Ireland a wider choice between gas suppliers," the Commission said.
The three partners in the Corrib development had initially sought a five-year exemption from EU rules requiring individual marketing of gas, claiming this was necessary to balance the purchasing power of Bord Gais and the ESB. Enterprise Energy spokeswoman Ms Rosemary Steen said that when the three partners sought an exemption two years ago, the Irish market was very immature in a regulatory sense and was also viewed as too small to accommodate a number of gas providers.
Since then, she said, the market had grown much bigger than they had forecast while the regulatory regime had been liberalised. "As a result of those changes, we decided to withdraw our application for joint marketing."
According to Enterprise, the demand for gas is growing rapidly, with annual average demand of 350 million cubic feet of gas. This is forecast to rise to 480 million cubic feet of gas a day by 2005.
The Kinsale Head and Ballycotton fields are currently Ireland's only indigenous source of gas but, with production declining, imports of gas have increased and now account for more than 50 per cent of Ireland's needs.
The Corrib field is currently in the early stages of development, but tests to date have indicated potential reserves of one trillion cubic feet of gas with a possible flow rate of 64 million cubic feet a day. The development involves sub-sea production which will be connected to a pipeline which will reach land in north Mayo. The development costs are in the order of #650 million and first production is due in 2003.
Enterprise has a 45 per cent stake in the Corrib field, Statoil has 36.5 per cent, while Marathon Petroleum which operates the Kinsale Head and Ballycotton fields off the coast of Cork, has 18.5 per cent.
