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How much are we losing to SHELL?

2

Comments

  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,324 ✭✭✭RGDATA!


    Given that we would never have been able to extract the gas ourselves then the answer obviously is that we're not losing anything.

    Your quick write-off of the issue can only be correct if:
    a) Shell wouldn't have bothered exploring/extracting if we tried to negotiate as little as one % higher than the current deal
    b) There were no other examples of nations who similarly lack the resources to extract themselves, who negotiated more favourable deals than us.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 19,306 ✭✭✭✭Drumpot


    Had this discussion with an FF friend . .

    The process of giving the contract to Shell has created employment. However, I dont believe it wasnt a reason to redeem some sort of royalties from any potential discovery.

    Given the ridiculous deal we got from the EU, is anybody really surprised that this government prob couldnt negotiate a better deal for Ireland.

    What I would be interested in , is if they do find something, can we then tax them in some way (theres always a way).


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 86,729 ✭✭✭✭Overheal


    It may have resulted in some jobs but its doubtful that it would be comparable to the number of jobs which would have been created from the additional revenue earned in a better negotiation.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 503 ✭✭✭whoopdedoo


    listermint wrote: »
    Well then as stated, Enjoy your trip. But stop spouting venom, you'll keep your friends that way. They might actually like it here even if it doesnt suit you. Shock Horror.

    interrailing was fun, but it can be dodgy out there be safe. Vietnam is fairly well beaten path at this point you'll enjoy that one.

    wrong again, gone past the typical interrailing age demographic, more of a career move than a holiday but nice try anyway!

    as regards my attitude well I've gone passed the point of needing friends so bad that I have to drop my beliefs so as to keep people around me who see the world out of their arses!


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 503 ✭✭✭whoopdedoo


    So first you READ the deal document, but then it turns out you actually heard someone talking about it, not read it yourself?


    LOL! :rolleyes:


    Yes, yes we do.

    yes I did read it, you're trying to tell me I didn't read it?

    you can stay laughing mate, I'll be having the last laugh at the end of the day

    you thick :D


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,610 ✭✭✭Padraig Mor


    whoopdedoo wrote: »
    yes I did read it, you're trying to tell me I didn't read it?
    Yes - I don't believe you read it and you've pretty much admitted this yourself.
    you can stay laughing mate, I'll be having the last laugh at the end of the day
    Doubtful.


    you thick :D
    Thank you! I could report your post, but you and your S2S ilk aren't worth it TBH......


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,907 ✭✭✭LostinBlanch



    Yes, yes we do.

    Who is this "we" you refer to?

    Do you speak for everybody on the web/boards/Ireland?

    just curious like


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,907 ✭✭✭LostinBlanch


    Overheal wrote: »
    It may have resulted in some jobs but its doubtful that it would be comparable to the number of jobs which would have been created from the additional revenue earned in a better negotiation.

    Agreed, my concern about the whole thing was that Ray Burke who was the relevant minister at the time sent his whole negotiating team out of the room while he dealt with Shell. *Lataer he was convicted of corruption IIRC on a different matter mind, but did a leopard ever change it's spots?

    A few years later Bertie sweetened the deal even more giving more tax rebates to Shell when he was minister for the environment. People will notice that this was more or less around the time he was going cap in hand to Paddy the plasterer in Manchester or winning unnamed amounts on unnamed horses instead of looking for "digouts" because he needed to pay for his divorce :rolleyes:

    BTW Shell were even agitating to try and land the gas in Scotland. Look it up.

    One question for all the apologists on here. Please tell me why Norway is a partner in the Corrib gas field and stands to make profit while Ireland doesn't? How right is that?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 861 ✭✭✭tails_naf


    How much are we losing to Shell by charging them low taxes? About as much as we are losing to Microsoft by charing them 12.5%.

    I'm sure if we raise taxes both companies will stay here because they love us so much.

    Microsoft are somewhat mobile. They could work from anywhere in the world.
    Shell (or someone else) have to be here to pump the oil here. They would stay as long as there is a profit.

    Also, saying Ireland could never pump the oil themselves is crazy*. Loads of countries control the oil that they produce - venezuela, saudi arabia, kuait, iraq, norway. And in many cases it's all they have, and they are still rich. So to think that we could not tax it at 50% and still get interested parties is crazy. And even if we left it for 10 years, believe me, it would just sit there getting more valuable by the day, and getting more and more attractive no matter the % charged by the state.

    It IS a national resource, and should be treated as one.

    *I don't mean they setup an oil company, but they could be more in control and open the field to offers/bidding/ and ask for a percentage of everything extracted.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,807 ✭✭✭Birdnuts


    Nope, Shell are developing a well that has about 9bn in Gas reserves. There are claims made constantly that we are\have gave away Hundreds of billions of worth of oil and gas reserves. So in that context, why hasn't anyone else brought their free oil and gas ashore?

    According to documents recently released by Wikileaks, Shell themselves reckon there is at least 15 Corrib gas fields out there off the West coast. Hence the option they took out on more state land in North Mayo to potentially expand the refinery at Bellanaboy(we still don't know what if anything they paid for the Coillte land they built the refinery on as both the state and SHELL refuse to discuss yet another aspect of their grubby little deal)


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 43,311 ✭✭✭✭K-9


    Agreed, my concern about the whole thing was that Ray Burke who was the relevant minister at the time sent his whole negotiating team out of the room while he dealt with Shell. *Lataer he was convicted of corruption IIRC on a different matter mind, but did a leopard ever change it's spots?

    A few years later Bertie sweetened the deal even more giving more tax rebates to Shell when he was minister for the environment. People will notice that this was more or less around the time he was going cap in hand to Paddy the plasterer in Manchester or winning unnamed amounts on unnamed horses instead of looking for "digouts" because he needed to pay for his divorce :rolleyes:

    BTW Shell were even agitating to try and land the gas in Scotland. Look it up.

    One question for all the apologists on here. Please tell me why Norway is a partner in the Corrib gas field and stands to make profit while Ireland doesn't? How right is that?

    Still, the 100's of Billions figure seems to come from the same Government figures, this Government we don't trust plus some companies that own fields and its in their own self interest to "drum" up the figure.

    Mad Men's Don Draper : What you call love was invented by guys like me, to sell nylons.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 354 ✭✭puffdragon


    The latest REAL VALUE of the field to the whole island in my terms as I am middle aged and could benefit from the field for the next 20 years is 54 billion on the basis that a decent infastructure of pipelines were distributed all over Ireland, thats not counting the jobs, materials profits, and the obvious advantage to our carbon footprint.

    Yep its 2.7 billion each year for the rest of my life and then of course theirs my children who could benefit from this field when the peak oil thingy hits in 30 years time. This field giveaway is equivelent to the banking crisis in its mismanagement, Fianna Fail have to be gotten outa here pronto.rool in Sinn Fein .


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 43,311 ✭✭✭✭K-9


    puffdragon wrote: »
    The latest REAL VALUE of the field to the whole island in my terms as I am middle aged and could benefit from the field for the next 20 years is 54 billion on the basis that a decent infastructure of pipelines were distributed all over Ireland, thats not counting the jobs, materials profits, and the obvious advantage to our carbon footprint.

    Yep its 2.7 billion each year for the rest of my life and then of course theirs my children who could benefit from this field when the peak oil thingy hits in 30 years time. This field giveaway is equivelent to the banking crisis in its mismanagement, Fianna Fail have to be gotten outa here pronto.rool in Sinn Fein .

    The costs would be substantial, somebody has to pay for the piping, wages, rigs etc. Shell has already spent a couple of Billion.

    It just isn't as simple as SF tell you. Plus there are other places to spend that kind of money of more immediate concern, like schools and hospitals.

    Mad Men's Don Draper : What you call love was invented by guys like me, to sell nylons.



  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 318 ✭✭brendankelly


    It just isn't as simple as SF tell you. Plus there are other places to spend that kind of money of more immediate concern, like schools and hospitals.[/QUOTE]

    Because the oil was given away we do not have it to spend on schools etc.

    SF have never mentioned it. The only party that has mentioned the gas give away are Fis Nua. Rool in Fis Nua


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,932 ✭✭✭hinault


    Faced with the same problem (no homegrown mineral exploration company / exploration expertise), the Norwegians created Statoil in order to explore the mineral wealth found of it's coastline initially, in the early 1970's.


    Wikipedia.
    Den Norske Stats Oljeselskap A/S was founded as a private limited company owned by the Government of Norway on July 14, 1972 by a unanimous act passed by the Norwegian parliament Stortinget.
    The political motivation was Norwegian participation in the oil industry on the continental shelf and to build up Norwegian competency within the petroleum industry to establish the foundations of a domestic petroleum industry.
    Statoil was required to discuss important issues with the Minister of Industry, later Minister of Petroleum and Energy. Statoil was also required to submit an annual report to the parliament.
    In 1973 the company started work acquiring a presence in the petrochemical industry. This resulted in the development of processing plants in Rafsnes and, in partnership with Norsk Hydro, the Mongstad plant in 1980. In 1981 the company acquired, as the first Norwegian company, operator rights on the Norwegian continental shelf on the Gullfaks field. 1987-88 saw the largest scandal in the companies history, the Mongstad scandal that made the until then unassailable CEO Arve Johnsen withdraw.
    In the 1980s Statoil decided to become a fully integrated petroleum company and started building the Statoil fuel station brand. The stations in Norway originated as Norol stations while the stations in Denmark and Sweden were purchased from Esso in 1985, while the stations in Ireland were purchased from British Petroleum in 1992 and ConocoPhilips Jet in the mid '90s, then sold by Statoil to Topaz Oil in 2006. Statoil also built up a network of stations in part of Eastern Europe in the 1990s.



    Ireland could and should have tried to follow the same path as the Norwegians on the pretext of the Corrib oil/gas find.
    Incidentally as a result of revenues from Statoil, Norway owns the largest sovereign wealth pension fund in the world.:D


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,915 ✭✭✭cursai


    whoopdedoo wrote: »
    yes I did read it, you're trying to tell me I didn't read it?

    you can stay laughing mate, I'll be having the last laugh at the end of the day

    you thick :D

    you sound like your going on an international killing spree ........with a bit of basket weaving/self exploring mixed in...


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,610 ✭✭✭Padraig Mor


    Who is this "we" you refer to?

    Do you speak for everybody on the web/boards/Ireland?

    just curious like

    The "we" is the "ye" who Whoopdedoo referred to in his post - please refer to that post if you need clarification. I'm sure however that the "we" could be extended to include the many people with the cop on to realise that there is no bizarre conspiracy behind the Shell deal, and that it is in fact probably the best deal that could have been negotiated.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,610 ✭✭✭Padraig Mor


    Birdnuts wrote: »
    According to documents recently released by Wikileaks, Shell themselves reckon there is at least 15 Corrib gas fields out there off the West coast.

    Yet more lies from the S2S headbangers. Shell said no such thing - however, as always, the S2S crew just pick up on half truths and second hand comments here and there and use the ol' "if you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it" trick.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 669 ✭✭✭whatstherush


    Birdnuts wrote: »
    According to documents recently released by Wikileaks, Shell themselves reckon there is at least 15 Corrib gas fields out there off the West coast.

    The full quote is “could be 20 or more Corribs out there — or very little — depending on how the exploratory drilling progresses this year.” source


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 717 ✭✭✭Mucco


    A suggestion to all those upset at Shell for potentially making money on Corrib: Buy shares in Shell, then you share the profit!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 669 ✭✭✭whatstherush


    Agreed, my concern about the whole thing was that Ray Burke who was the relevant minister at the time sent his whole negotiating team out of the room while he dealt with Shell.

    A few years later Bertie sweetened the deal even more giving more tax rebates to Shell when he was minister for the environment.

    These two statements are absolute bollix. Ray Burke was a minister in the late 80's, Bertie in the early 90's. Corrib was discovered by Enterprise Oil in 1996, which was bought by Shell in 2002. Source

    So tell me LostinBlanch, why was Ray Burke negotiating with Shell over a decade before they had any involvement with the project?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,520 ✭✭✭Duke Leonal Felmet


    Scofflaw gave a fairly comprehensive dressing down of this subject in a thread a couple of pages back. It sort of put a dampener on the idea of their being a billion trillion trillion gallons of oil and gas under our feet. Worth a read.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,226 ✭✭✭Pete_Cavan


    Scofflaw gave a fairly comprehensive dressing down of this subject in a thread a couple of pages back. It sort of put a dampener on the idea of their being a billion trillion trillion gallons of oil and gas under our feet. Worth a read.

    Yes (I linked it in post #20 on this thread for those who missed it), but the S2S brigade here either didnt bother reading it or would rather to continue ignoring reality in favour of their conspiracy theories. IMO they would be better off reading a Dan Brown book, although they are less far fetched.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 503 ✭✭✭whoopdedoo


    Yes - I don't believe you read it and you've pretty much admitted this yourself.

    Doubtful.




    Thank you! I could report your post, but you and your S2S ilk aren't worth it TBH......

    where did I admit I didn't read the damn details?!? i'm tyin to tell you I did ffs!

    as regards shell to sea I have absolutely no affiliation whatsoever with them!

    you are a thick


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 503 ✭✭✭whoopdedoo


    Birdnuts wrote: »
    According to documents recently released by Wikileaks, Shell themselves reckon there is at least 15 Corrib gas fields out there off the West coast. Hence the option they took out on more state land in North Mayo to potentially expand the refinery at Bellanaboy(we still don't know what if anything they paid for the Coillte land they built the refinery on as both the state and SHELL refuse to discuss yet another aspect of their grubby little deal)

    the land was flippin handed to them and they're due a sh1tload more too!!

    of course bertie is on the board of coillte

    wanker!!!!!!!!!


  • Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 10,581 Mod ✭✭✭✭Robbo


    GG66 wrote: »
    Let's be clear on this, Shell are only the company hired to extract the oil & prior to doing so they changed all their filling stations to the name Topaz to avoid any public backlash similar to that experienced in the UK & other countries for their lack or respect for local populations
    Topaz are the result of a number of Irish people (Denis O'Brien, Gerry Barrett et al) buying out Shell and Statoil's operations in Ireland. It's a popular Indymedia/S2S trope to assert that they are one and the same, sadly lacking in factual basis.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 40 one eye


    Another Dempsey disaster. Everything he touched turned to dust. Mercifully he is gone complete with fat pension and golden handshake. Good riddance.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,610 ✭✭✭Padraig Mor


    whoopdedoo wrote: »
    where did I admit I didn't read the damn details?!? i'm tyin to tell you I did ffs!

    Sure :rolleyes:

    That's why when you were asked for a link to the document you supposedly read you replied "I remember it was a minister outlining the deal but can't remember who, they outlined a little detail......................"

    Can you show me a link to the document you read?

    If not online, can you tell me where you got your hands on this document?

    You didn't read 'the deal', you read/heard a half-baked ill-informed synopsis from some dingbat in Indymedia/S2S etc who wouldn't know truth if it came up and bit him on the ass - and are now repeating it as fact.



    edit: Whoopdedoo: I'd be obliged if you could keep the discussion on thread please, and not on my visitor wall. Thanks.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,807 ✭✭✭Birdnuts


    K-9 wrote: »
    this Government we don't trust plus .

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/may/31/royal-dutch-shell-compensation-shareholders

    So that means you trust a company that has lied to its own Shareholders in the past:confused:


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,807 ✭✭✭Birdnuts


    Pete_Cavan wrote: »
    Yes (I linked it in post #20 on this thread for those who missed it), but the S2S brigade here either didnt bother reading it or would rather to continue ignoring reality in favour of their conspiracy theories. IMO they would be better off reading a Dan Brown book, although they are less far fetched.

    Your dreaming - oil and gas company exploration efforts are based on market prices. During the 80 and 90's there was little interest in deep water reserves since oil and gas prices were low - hence the lack of activity in Irish waters. In recent years prices have rocketed and this has lead to the exploration of deeper waters like the area around the falklands and the Arctic Ocean. What our government has done is subsidise the profits of SHELL on the back of the Irish taxpayer:mad:


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,627 ✭✭✭uprising2


    Given that we would never have been able to extract the gas ourselves then the answer obviously is that we're not losing anything.

    I start reading the thread and got as far as this, and had to reply, so forgive me if I'm miles away from whatever route the thread has since taken.

    This is the exact idiotic type of thinking that has this country f****d.

    The solution is simple, you source out the contracts, when they are complete you say bye bye, safe home and take control of "our" own resource.

    QUOTE:
    "If you live in the US and want to work overseas, understand that drilling contractors seldom if ever send lower echelon people overseas. An overseas crew might have an American tool pusher, driller, crane operator, barge engineer and electrician. Maybe a few more, maybe a few less, it varies from company to company, rig to rig, job to job."
    http://www.offshoreguides.com/cptron/contact_drilling_contractors.htm

    Get the "experts" in to do the work we can't, when it's done, pay whats owed or come to some agreement to pay x amount over x years then contract complete, nice doing business, goodbye, we own the suppy, it's our's, all our's!!!.

    Irish are not thick either, home grown experts are only a few years away, foreign companies can be employed as and when needed, instead of bright young minds heading off to australia or where-ever, a few could be highly trained in every aspect of the industry and "allowed" run a gas supply.

    Corrib is a sell out, it's been stolen and sold to the lowest bidder for the benefit of the few.

    Irish Minister Marks Vermilion's Entry into Corrib Gas Devt
    Mr. Conor Lenihan, T.D., Minister of State for Natural Resources and Knowledge Society, has welcomed the entry of a new company into the Irish petroleum market following the sale of Marathon Petroleum Hibernia Limited's 18.5% interest in the Corrib Gas Field to Vermilion Energy Trust. Vermillion Energy Trust is a Canadian based international energy producer with operations in Canada, Europe (France and the Netherlands) and Australia. The companies closed the transaction on Thursday, July 30, 2009
    http://www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?a_id=79013

    Welcome to Ireland, take what you want and give us the crumbs, thank you very much sir, I'm a shaking it there boss, Please sir, may I have some more, Oliver "Ireland" Twist.


    Broadhaven Bay is the proposed area to discharge toxic waste from the refining process

    The plant is expected by Shell to employ approximately 55 workers when operational.
    It's a f*****g joke, but it's not funny, well it is funny for a few.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corrib_gas_project


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 23,283 ✭✭✭✭Scofflaw


    Do we really have to go over this again? The amount of oil and gas "estimated" in media sources is next to meaningless, we're getting taxes from Corrib (or will be - estimated at €1.3bn when the field was valued at c. €7bn), we're getting more taxes from any further discoveries, and you cannot logically claim simultaneously that the Burke deal was a giveaway and that there's billions out there but the oil companies are pretending there isn't. One or the other, not both.

    Shell do not think there's 20 more Corribs out there. The cable in question said that Ireland's hope was to find something like that in 2008:
    (C) Ireland’s real hope, however, is to find more gas in the Porcupine Basin in the North Atlantic. Shell reps and Bazilian told the Embassy that 2008 could be a big year for gas exploration in Ireland. Shell’s Cetti said there “could be 20 or more Corribs out there — or very little — depending on how the exploratory drilling progresses this year.” The Irish government just announced the results of the latest round of license tendering for fields in the North Atlantic. ExxonMobil (and partners) won two of the four licenses up for grabs.

    What did they actually find in 2008? Not 20 Corribs.

    We don't have the know-how to put together a State oil company. That's got nothing to do with not being able to hire the right people - we don't even have people who know the right people to hire.

    We don't have any pressing reason to put together a State oil company - not even one that just consists of a partner that puts in no expertise and just takes a slice of the profits, because we already do that by charging taxes. There is absolutely no reason at all for the State to really do oil exploration - we could throw billions down that hole without any return.

    Offshore Ireland is a next-to-unknown quantity in terms of actual potential, and what is known is disappointing - small and heavily chopped up reservoirs, gas and condensate rather than oil, 30 dusters drilled for every well with a show. Corrib is no Ekofisk (the field that kick-started the Norwegian oil industry) - Ekofisk was the biggest ever discovery, Corrib is smaller than Kinsale. Ekofisk was also in shallow enough water to permit use of oil barges - virtually the entire Irish offshore is deep enough to represent the limits of current technological capability.

    Most of our supposed billions in oil and gas exist only in puff pieces written by small exploration companies hoping to be bought out by oil majors or by the PAD trying to drum up licence auction bids. What's known to be out there is mostly only marginally profitable at times of relatively high petroleum prices.

    We don't have anything to show for the supposedly vast resources of the Irish offshore because they just simply haven't ever been shown to exist. They are, at this moment in time, entirely speculative, which is a pretty good approximation to imaginary. You can talk about them all you like, but there's next to sod-all to actually back up them up in reality. Don't get confused by Corrib - it's a flea's fart in world gas terms, and we are already taxing it.

    wearily,
    Scofflaw


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 547 ✭✭✭yosemite_sam


    slimjimmc wrote: »
    Did he drill 83km out into the Atlantic while bobbying on 355m of ocean?

    there are companies that do the drilling, all these skills are hired in


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 547 ✭✭✭yosemite_sam


    Scofflaw wrote: »
    Do we really have to go over this again? The amount of oil and gas "estimated" in media sources is next to meaningless, we're getting taxes from Corrib (or will be - estimated at €1.3bn when the field was valued at c. €7bn), we're getting more taxes from any further discoveries, and you cannot logically claim simultaneously that the Burke deal was a giveaway and that there's billions out there but the oil companies are pretending there isn't. One or the other, not both.

    Shell do not think there's 20 more Corribs out there. The cable in question said that Ireland's hope was to find something like that in 2008:



    What did they actually find in 2008? Not 20 Corribs.

    We don't have the know-how to put together a State oil company. That's got nothing to do with not being able to hire the right people - we don't even have people who know the right people to hire.

    We don't have any pressing reason to put together a State oil company - not even one that just consists of a partner that puts in no expertise and just takes a slice of the profits, because we already do that by charging taxes. There is absolutely no reason at all for the State to really do oil exploration - we could throw billions down that hole without any return.

    Offshore Ireland is a next-to-unknown quantity in terms of actual potential, and what is known is disappointing - small and heavily chopped up reservoirs, gas and condensate rather than oil, 30 dusters drilled for every well with a show. Corrib is no Ekofisk (the field that kick-started the Norwegian oil industry) - Ekofisk was the biggest ever discovery, Corrib is smaller than Kinsale. Ekofisk was also in shallow enough water to permit use of oil barges - virtually the entire Irish offshore is deep enough to represent the limits of current technological capability.

    Most of our supposed billions in oil and gas exist only in puff pieces written by small exploration companies hoping to be bought out by oil majors or by the PAD trying to drum up licence auction bids. What's known to be out there is mostly only marginally profitable at times of relatively high petroleum prices.

    We don't have anything to show for the supposedly vast resources of the Irish offshore because they just simply haven't ever been shown to exist. They are, at this moment in time, entirely speculative, which is a pretty good approximation to imaginary. You can talk about them all you like, but there's next to sod-all to actually back up them up in reality. Don't get confused by Corrib - it's a flea's fart in world gas terms, and we are already taxing it.

    wearily,
    Scofflaw
    Ah the black stuff
    http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ec0fb0c4-5554-11de-b5d4-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1Dhkz0Iuq


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 23,283 ✭✭✭✭Scofflaw



    Let me know when they've drilled this year's exploratory wells. All they have at the moment is a show of oil and an exciting estimate of potential. Granted that's the first show of oil in 28 years, of course.

    And, yes, we'll be taxing it, too, if it turns out to be a commercial find.

    cordially,
    Scofflaw


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,932 ✭✭✭hinault


    Scofflaw wrote: »
    Let me know when they've drilled this year's exploratory wells. All they have at the moment is a show of oil and an exciting estimate of potential. Granted that's the first show of oil in 28 years, of course.

    And, yes, we'll be taxing it, too, if it turns out to be a commercial find.

    cordially,
    Scofflaw

    Hopefully if they do strike another deal, the State will impose a more robust tax than the current 25% rate and zero rate royalty tax/charge (zero rate mineral extraction tax).


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 332 ✭✭Bogsnorkler


    I blame BP.

    lol jk


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 23,283 ✭✭✭✭Scofflaw


    hinault wrote: »
    Hopefully if they do strike another deal, the State will impose a more robust tax than the current 25% rate and zero rate royalty tax/charge (zero rate mineral extraction tax).

    That's not quite the current deal (it's a 25-40% profits tax on top of the corporation tax), but yes, if there's more out there (and I don't mean another tiddler like Corrib) then it becomes possible to make the tax regime more demanding. Currently, we have one of the world's more attractive petroleum tax regimes, because we won't get exploration without it - but if there are proven serious reserves out there, the companies will come in as long as they can still make money. At that stage it becomes worth talking about an Irish State oil company, too, and/or developing an Irish offshore industry.

    For the moment, though, it's all just pie in the sky.

    cordially,
    Scofflaw


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,932 ✭✭✭hinault


    Scofflaw wrote: »
    That's not quite the current deal (it's a 25-40% profits tax on top of the corporation tax), but yes, if there's more out there (and I don't mean another tiddler like Corrib) then it becomes possible to make the tax regime more demanding. Currently, we have one of the world's more attractive petroleum tax regimes, because we won't get exploration without it - but if there are proven serious reserves out there, the companies will come in as long as they can still make money. At that stage it becomes worth talking about an Irish State oil company, too, and/or developing an Irish offshore industry.

    For the moment, though, it's all just pie in the sky.

    cordially,
    Scofflaw

    I think you're correct in suggesting that some thought should be give to creating an Irish State oil company if there are commercially viable deposits to
    extract/refine.
    If the Norwegians can do it, so can we!

    I also think that given the substantial increase in the demand for energy worldwide (especially so with the commercial growth in markets like China, India and Brazil) this demand for energy will not decrease.
    Therefore exploration firms will be predisposed to looking at fields which may not have been viable previously.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,627 ✭✭✭uprising2


    So, Royal Dutch Shell, Statoil and Vermilion Energy Trust are all interested in tiny tiddlers?, do you honestly believe what you write?
    These companies are the vultures of the earth, sucking what they can, where they can, when they can and like the corrupt Nigerian govt, our own ex-cons also sold out before they were booted out.

    Why be "happy" with anything less than 100% of profits?, it's not like we couldn't do with it. The country is on it's knee's, 3 multinational companies are sucking juice from our tank, we're on our knee's below them with a bucket catching the dribbles, and we should be so greatful to them for doing what is "impossible" for ireland as a nation to do "all by itself", do you realise how small minded an attitude that is?, it's degrading.


    Your assumption that we are incapable of actually hiring what is needed, when it's needed, and saying goodbye and thankyou for your service when the time comes is absurd. Why Not?,

    In these financially difficult times every penny lost, is a penny lost, what's to gain from loss?, easy answer.....Nothing.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 669 ✭✭✭whatstherush


    uprising2 wrote: »
    do you honestly believe what you write?

    Do you honestly believe the propaganda that S2S spout about little ol'Ireland being raped by the big bad oil companies. S2S are so full of lies you couldn't believe the radio in their car.

    It's so lovely that S2S have the interests of Irish resources so close to their hearts, but the truth is, the gas could be extracted by the Irish state and given away free to the public and you would still have the same rent a scruffs protesting about something or other.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,461 ✭✭✭liammur


    Shell got a very good deal. There can be no doubting that.
    However, anyone who has any experience with O&G exploration plays, will know that it's a very high risk high reward business. Very few companies in the world have the resources that Shell have. They have put in over €1bn in to this project already. They do expect to get multiples of this back, but only time will tell whether they do or not.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 23,283 ✭✭✭✭Scofflaw


    uprising2 wrote: »
    So, Royal Dutch Shell, Statoil and Vermilion Energy Trust are all interested in tiny tiddlers?, do you honestly believe what you write?

    I wouldn't write it if I didn't. Yes, the oil majors are interested in tiddlers, because a tiddler is still worth a couple of billion. That couple of billion makes it worthwhile someone with the expertise investing in developing the field.
    uprising2 wrote: »
    These companies are the vultures of the earth, sucking what they can, where they can, when they can and like the corrupt Nigerian govt, our own ex-cons also sold out before they were booted out

    Or you could say they're companies with expertise in a particular form of resource extraction who are used to dealing with corrupt and unstable countries, and who don't always play nicely - same thing, slightly less hysterical.
    uprising2 wrote: »
    Why be "happy" with anything less than 100% of profits?, it's not like we couldn't do with it. The country is on it's knee's, 3 multinational companies are sucking juice from our tank, we're on our knee's below them with a bucket catching the dribbles,

    Because extracting 100% of the profits from a resource found by a private company is something you only really get to do once.
    uprising2 wrote: »
    and we should be so greatful to them for doing what is "impossible" for ireland as a nation to do "all by itself", do you realise how small minded an attitude that is?, it's degrading.

    Your assumption that we are incapable of actually hiring what is needed, when it's needed, and saying goodbye and thankyou for your service when the time comes is absurd. Why Not?,

    Presumably, so is every other occasion on which an Irish company isn't used to do something in Ireland - and I won't comment on the parochialism of that attitude. It's not "impossible" for Ireland to develop a State oil company - it's currently pointless.
    uprising2 wrote: »
    In these financially difficult times every penny lost, is a penny lost, what's to gain from loss?, easy answer.....Nothing.

    So your view is that we should have invested the billion and a half that Shell have put in, and still have seen no gas?

    Look, it's not complicated. Currently, we own the seabed. We licence the right to explore for resources and develop any found - for money. Then, if a resource is developed, we tax the profits on it. Risk - zero. Investment - zero. Return on investment - divide by zero.

    All you're saying is that when someone actually finds a resource, we should simply steal it back from them. Whatever about the morality of that - it's simply not worth doing for something the size of Corrib.

    We're the ones getting free money from Corrib, not Shell. You want to grab more money, but all your plans involve it not being free money any more - you want to take on the risks of exploring the Irish offshore, which has the potential to be yet another huge money hole at a time when we already have two on the go. And you want to do it over an amount of money that would keep the State going for a few months. It's hard to put into words politely the scale of the stupidity involved.

    If someone finds an Ekofisk out there, then we can consider welching on all the legally binding deals. For anything less, it's not worth doing - and the Norwegians didn't even do it for Ekofisk.

    regards,
    Scofflaw


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,807 ✭✭✭Birdnuts


    Scofflaw wrote: »
    and we are already taxing it.

    wearily,
    Scofflaw

    Are we?? - care to produce some figures given that under the deal all SHELL's Irish cost are written off against tax.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,807 ✭✭✭Birdnuts


    Do you honestly believe the propaganda that S2S spout about little ol'Ireland being raped by the big bad oil companies. S2S are so full of lies you couldn't believe the radio in their car.

    It's so lovely that S2S have the interests of Irish resources so close to their hearts, but the truth is, the gas could be extracted by the Irish state and given away free to the public and you would still have the same rent a scruffs protesting about something or other.

    What lies are you referring too?? - SHELL have lied to their own shareholders not to mention a mountain of other corporate scandals they've been associated with over the years:(


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,807 ✭✭✭Birdnuts


    Scofflaw wrote: »



    Or you could say they're companies with expertise in a particular form of resource extraction who are used to dealing with corrupt and unstable countries, and who don't always play nicely - same thing, slightly less hysterical.





    regards,
    Scofflaw

    SHELL should snap you up for their PR dept - presumably your first job would be re-writing the history of SHELLS activities in the Niger Delta


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,807 ✭✭✭Birdnuts


    Scofflaw wrote: »
    .

    We don't have the know-how to put together a State oil company. T
    Scofflaw

    Them thick Paddies eh?? - plenty of Irish work/worked on such projects like Kinsale and in other parts of the world. We even have Irish people like Michael Campbell who held senior positions with Statoil. Going on your logic Statoil itself would never have been set up by the Norwegians:rolleyes:


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 625 ✭✭✭yermanoffthetv


    8557-facepalm.jpg


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,807 ✭✭✭Birdnuts


    liammur wrote: »
    Shell got a very good deal. There can be no doubting that.
    However, anyone who has any experience with O&G exploration plays, will know that it's a very high risk high reward business. Very few companies in the world have the resources that Shell have. They have put in over €1bn in to this project already. They do expect to get multiples of this back, but only time will tell whether they do or not.

    SHELL don't make tens of billion of euros a year on Russian Roulette - their exploration strategies like all big oil companies are based on the price of energy commodities. Hence the lack of activity in deep water areas like Irish waters when oil prices etc. were subdued in the 80's and 90's. The last decade has seen an explosion in the prices of these commodities and that is why the likes of SHELL and BP are getting going in places like the Arctic Ocean and the South Atlantic off Brazil etc.

    The Corrib gas deal is a subsidy to these massive profits with a very poor return for the Irish state particulary in light of what the community in Mayo have been put through and the risks they now face having a company with SHELLs appalling health and safety record in their midst:(


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