Oil giant's Irish operations chief has a tough job in convincing Mayo community of benefits of Corrib pipeline for local and national economies, writes Emmet Oliver
It's almost a decade since the Corrib natural gas field was discovered off the Mayo coast. When the discovery was announced in October 1996, a spokesman for Enterprise Oil, the then owner, said: "Finding a commercial field is a long and treacherous path".
Ten years on, we now know that finding the gas is not the only long and treacherous process - getting it onshore with community support is another task.
I remember being told in 1998 by an almost giddy civil servant that it had the potential to be the biggest discovery in Irish waters. As it turns out, it is slightly smaller than Kinsale. In one sense, the size of the discovery has become irrelevant. The local opposition to Shell, which took over as operators of the field from Enterprise Oil in 2002, has become the story.
This week Minister for Communications Noel Dempsey published the independent safety review of the project and Shell has pledged to implement its recommendations.
The boss of Shell in Ireland, Andy Pyle, is an unlikely central player in this story and an even more unlikely bogeyman for the Shell To Sea campaign. A small, studious-looking Englishman who speaks in low, precise tones, he has been on the receiving end of some vigorous protests, but is keen now to move on, particularly in the wake of the review.
"I hope that the publication of the report and our commitment to meet all of the recommendations will mark a turning point in this project". He also expresses unambiguous contrition over recent events. "Mistakes have been made. We regret the part that we played in the jailing of the five men last summer. For the hurt that this caused the local community, I am sorry. We cannot change the past but we have learned from it."
Pyle has been with Shell since 1976, so after 30 years with the company he easily qualifies as a lifer. His experience has also brought him into contact with other major oil and gas exploration companies. He worked on several joint ventures with the world's biggest exploration firm, Exxon Mobil, in the late 1970s, and spent time working Houston, Texas. The variety of roles available in Shell makes working for the company satisfying, he says. His last role before coming to Ireland was to integrate the IT infrastrucuture throughout the whole Shell group, which operates in over 140 countries. Before that he learned the art of negotiation when he was procurement manager for all of Shell's activities in the North Sea. While Shell's Irish roots may not be very deep so far, Pyle lives in Dublin full time and says he travels regularly to Erris, the site of the planned Corrib pipline.
Asked about the kind of things he has endured from a small number of protestors since taking up his Irish role in 2002, he replies: "A lot of abuse. Verbal, pretty aggressive verbal abuse which I've experienced and others have experienced. I think indirect intimidation. People being followed in cars, followed home at night. I've had occasions when people have phoned me. A number of us have experienced phone calls, of what I would call a threatening type. 'You better do something or else'." Pyle once found himself blocked in by cars after visiting someone in the area. Despite this, he says, Shell is committed to further test drilling in Ireland and is not disenchanted with the Irish market - Shell has started test drilling off the coast of Donegal.
Since June last year, things have become very tense with Corrib. The jailing of the Rossport Five, in particular, lost Shell support, even amongst those who had supported the company. Pyle says Shell never anticipated anyone would end up in prison for disobeying court orders.
"The moment people went into prison, it changed the whole perspective people had on the Corrib project. A large number of people locally felt that's not right, particularly that landowners, who have genuine safety concerns, should not be in prison". Shell miscalculated during this period and Pyle agrees it was an own goal.
But is the problem pipelines or Shell? Bord Gáis has built a gas pipeline joining Shell's proposed pipeline at Bellanaboy and the opposition has been almost non-existent. Pyle believes this comes down to Shell being a new name in terms of pipelines in Ireland. But he also admits Shell's communication has been poor at times.
An engineer by profession, Pyle picks his words carefully. For example, he declines to say how much the Corrib field is worth, but he admits recent gas price rises have made the field more attractive commercially.
"It's helped to keep this project viable," he says. He also refuses to say when he expects gas will come ashore, although he says it will be at least two years.
His main pitch is that getting gas from Corrib ashore will give Ireland security of supply. It will give Ireland 50-60 per cent of its gas needs immediately and consequently help our balance of payments.
He also raises another crucial point - could the difficulties that have faced Shell in Ireland put off other international exploration companies operating here? "It can't help," says Pyle - but the global giant Exxon Mobil is doing exploration work. Asked to make a pitch to the country on behalf of Corrib, Pyle replies: "For someone, say living in Dublin, it probably won't make a huge difference. It will make an impact on security of supply, the lights won't go out. But I think you have to look at the macro benefits to Ireland, which in turn helps everyone. Most of this gas will be used to generate electricity and that should stabilise prices.
"The other benefit is the long-term view. Corrib, we hope, is the first step in more developments. That's why we are exploring. If we can encourage exploration, we can find some success,which in turn should encourage more exploration. Maybe Ireland will be self-sufficient in gas, maybe even a net exporter in gas in the future."
The other sweetener, he says, is for the local economy. About 700 construction jobs are to be offered in Mayo he says, building a gas-processing plant. Once everything is up and running, a permanent staff of 50 will stay on.
While he describes the field as "small to medium" by international standards, about €500 million has been spent on it, so there is little doubt Pyle and his colleagues need to get a result.
Pyle claims the "vast majority of people in Mayo" want the project to go ahead. Asked to quantify the numbers who actively protest against the development, Pyle says: "In terms of those who actually come out and obstruct and object, it's probably in the 30-50 bracket".
He is careful to separate that group from those who own land where the pipeline is crossing. He says there are about 37 of them and only eight or nine of them objected. He says this is the part of the story most often overlooked - the majority of landowners have agreed to let the pipeline go through their land.
Stories about landowners getting huge windfalls for agreeing to the pipeline appear wide of the mark. Based on ballpark calculations, compensation payments ranged from €7,000 at the lower end and €20,000-€30,000 at the upper end, Pyle says.
While Corrib is a touchstone issue for campaigners in Mayo and further afield, Shell is no stranger to controversy. In 2004, the company was engulfed in a major scandal when it overstated its proven global oil reserves by more than four billion barrels. As a result, it was forced into a radical overhaul of its corporate structure and management team.
Sometimes, however, campaigners against the company overplay their hand. For example, Greenpeace staged a high-profile campaign against Shell for its plans to sink the Brent Star oil storage rig in deep Atlantic waters in 1995. However, Greenpeace, which landed protesters onto the rig, later had to admit it overestimated the amount of oil in the rig's storage tanks and was forced to issue a public apology.
It remains to be seen whether something similar will happen in Mayo. Pyle says he has sat down with several objectors, but to no avail. He claims a "silent majority" have not been heard on Corrib and the blocking of a major infrastructural project by a small number of objections raises wider issues for the economy.
Getting a result in Ireland will also come down to who the gas is sold to and at what price. There are three shareholders in Corrib - Shell, Marathon and Statoil - and each company will sell its share individually. But when it's boiled down, the main customers are obvious - Bord Gaís and the main power stations. It cannot be exported to the UK because the gas interconnectors only go from Britain to Ireland, not the other way around. "It will all be used in Ireland, that's absolutely sure. It cannot be exported," says Pyle.
While Shell continues to face criticism that it is pinching Ireland's natural resources, the reality is that few Irish companies (or the Government) have been prepared to spend money drilling in the Atlantic for natural resources, says Pyle. This is hardly surprising - operators spent some €2 billion between 1971 and 2003 drilling more than 140 exploration and appraisal wells. There was not a single major oil find and Corrib was, along with Kinsale, the only major gas find.
Notwithstanding this background, Shell has - by its own admission - failed to convince the Erris community about the merits of the field. Consultation has been fleeting and not very successful, Pyle admits.
"We clearly underestimated, misunderstood the objections and concerns people had about the pipeline. We certainly didn't do enough communicating with those people, much earlier," he says.
"When we took over from Enterprise, this pipeline had already been approved and all the consents were in place, so we probably didn't pay as much attention to it, as we might have done.
"There is a lot more we could have done to engage with the community, to listen to their concerns and find a way to address them."
Factfile
Name: Andy Pyle
Age: 58
Title: Chief executive, Shell Exploration and Production Ireland
Education: Graduated from Nottingham University with a degree in electrical engineering
Career: Joined Shell in 1976 as a field engineer for the North Sea and the Shetland Islands and in 1989 became the engineering manager for Shell's Brent Field operations. In June 2002 he was appointed to his current role
Hobbies: Keen skier, enjoys diving, running and travel
Family: Married with twin sons
Why he is in the news: Shell's man in charge of delivering the onshore Corrib gas pipeline
