BLOOMBERG: Shell Says It's `Committed' to Controversial Irish Gas Pipeline: “Five Irishmen spent 94 days in jail for refusing to obey a court order not to interfere with the pipeline to an onshore processing plant. They and their supporters say it's being built on ``unstable bog land'' close to homes, and that the proposed refinery will pollute a nearby nature reserve and local water.”: Friday 14 October 2005
Oct. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europe's second-largest oil company, said it plans to proceed with a controversial pipeline in western Ireland to pump gas onshore from the 900 million-euro ($1.1 billion) Corrib field.
Shell is ``fully committed both to the completion of the Corrib Project and to finding a solution that will deal with all of the issues concerning some local landowners,'' Shell E&P Ireland Ltd. Managing Director Andy Pyle said today in an e-mailed statement.
Five Irishmen spent 94 days in jail for refusing to obey a court order not to interfere with the pipeline to an onshore processing plant. They and their supporters say it's being built on ``unstable bog land'' close to homes, and that the proposed refinery will pollute a nearby nature reserve and local water.
Work on the pipeline has been suspended since August to allow the government to conduct a safety review. The men, who had obstructed access to the pipeline construction site, were freed on Sept. 30 after Shell lifted its injunction on them because construction was suspended.
Pyle's comments came after a series of public meetings this week aimed at allowing those living near the proposed pipeline to voice their concerns. Pyle said that ``dialogue and accommodation may be necessary from all parties.'' The five men, known as the Rossport Five after the area in which they live, did not take part in the meetings.
``Shell are failing to understand the need to engage in constructive dialogue to resolve the problem,'' Mark Garavan of the Shell to Sea campaign, which opposes the pipeline, said by phone today. ``It's simply not adequate to say there will be no change.''
To contact the reporter on this story:
Fergal O'Brien in Dublin at fobrien@bloomberg.net.
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