Rossport 5 Statement After High Court Appearance On The 14th July

by mary belmullet Thu Jul 14, 2005 18:19

This statement of the Rossport Five contains the only solution to this collassal fiasco that is the on-land gas refinery project.

The offshore gas refinery is the only acceptable conclusion and where the locals can be winners as can Shell too.

Of course the Govt elected to power to serve the nation of Ireland, will not benefit either way -either by having the refinery on land or at sea, as all the negiotiations done by the various govt ministers on behalf of Ireland as regards the Corrib Gas Resource will neither yield taxes, royalties or cheaper gas to Irelands economy no matter where the Gas is being treated. (Fawlty Towers looks like a top class hotel when compared to how our govt manages this country, our resources and how they treat our Irish Citizens!!)

No matter what happens or what is done to try and whitewash the stinking corruption that reeks from this project --SHELL TO SEA IS THE ONLY ACCEPTABLE SOLUTION.

There will be more in prison if this is not achieved and that is a promise!!!

by eeekkkk Thu Jul 14, 2005 18:36

Questions questions questions

what conditions?

More Pipelines?

Just heard on 5/7 live

by Claire Thu Jul 14, 2005 20:12

In today's Daily Ireland: "Protesters call for suspension of oil and gas licences'.
The full URL is too long to reproduce here: just go to today's news features on http://www.dailyireland.com or use the search function.

by dailyireland Thu Jul 14, 2005 20:34

Protesters call for suspension of gas and oil licences
Conor McMorrow
A large protest took place in Letterkenny last night against the Irish government granting more gas and oil exploration licences for the Donegal Basin.
Sinn Féin representatives in Co Donegal organised the protest in support of the Rossport Five and to lobby Noel Dempsey, the minister for communications, marine and natural resources, to suspend the granting of gas and oil licences in the coastal county.
People in Donegal are calling on the Irish government to suspend the current round of applications for frontier exploration licences and to immediately carry out a review of the terms and conditions of all such licences.
The area on offer in the current round is in the Donegal, Slyne and Erris basins.
It will cover unlicensed blocks in an area of 25,000 square kilometres. The successful applicants will be offered frontier exploration licences, which have a duration of 15 years.
Speaking on behalf of the Sinn Féin’s ten elected representatives in Co Donegal, Councillor Pearse Doherty said: “I find it quite remarkable that Minister Dempsey is proceeding with this round of licences, in which highly flawed 1992 licensing terms for offshore oil and gas exploration and development will apply.
“The 1992 gas exploration legislation is extremely flawed and represents an extremely bad deal for the Irish people.
“The deal gives no royalties to the Dublin government and an extraordinarily low rate of tax, all of which Shell will be able to write off.”
The Donegal county councillor for the Glenties area added: “At the time of this legislation, former minster Ray Burke, against the advice of senior officials in his department, held a meeting on his own with the oil companies, after which the terms and conditions previously attached to licences were changed dramatically in favour of the companies.
“It would be reckless in the extreme if Minister Dempsey were to issue new licences without first carrying out a major review of the 1992 legislation.
“The time has come for this government to start putting the interests of the Irish people before the corporate interests of the oil and gas companies,” said Mr Doherty.
Speaking about the Rossport Five, Mr Doherty said: “It is not good enough for the government to wash their hands of the Corrib gas debacle and allow Shell to ride roughshod over the people of Rossport.
“It is a disgrace that the Rossport Five are being detained at Cloverhill prison.”
He went on: “Serious issues have arisen at every stage in this process, going right back to the original granting of licences and the allocation of the site at Bellanaboy, all of which are shrouded in mystery.
“To add to that, we now have the ludicrous situation where one part of a company engaged in a potentially dangerous pipeline development is asked to conduct an ‘independent review’ of the risks involved.”

by Elaine Thu Jul 14, 2005 22:34

Was with the Save Tara crew so only got a few pics.

by eeekkkkk Fri Jul 15, 2005 14:20

Ion group buys Shell businesses
July 15, 2005 12:35

A consortium led by venture capital group Ion Equity has bought Shell's retail and commercial business in the Republic of Ireland. The price paid was not disclosed. The new business will continue to operate in the same way and will still be associated with the Shell brand.

Irish Shell owns six oil importation facilities in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway, Derry and Greenore, 35 local distribution depots and 55 retail service stations. It also supplies 105 independently-owned service stations. The business is thought to have a turnover of around €1 billion a year.

Ion chief executive Neil O'Leary will be the interim chairman of Topaz, the company formed to make the acquisition, while former Emo Oil managing director Danny Murray will become chief executive.

Mr O'Leary said the new company would be one of Ireland's larger private businesses and he was confident it would continue as a profitable and growing enterprise.

by eeekkkk Fri Jul 15, 2005 14:38

Who coincidentally are tied up in Gas Exploration off the Irish Coast:

Ramco hires Ernst and Young to make up debt
By Finfacts Team
Jun 20, 2005, 08:47
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Steve Remp, Executive Chairman of Ramco.Scottish exploration company Ramco has appointed consulting group Ernst & Young to help it to find a buyer for its 86.5% stake in the Seven Heads gas field off the coast of Cork.  The company has said it has been granted extended waivers on loans until it has sold enough assets to repay its debt.

Under the agreement with its bankers, Ernst and Young have been appointed to work with Ramco to sell Ramco’s stake in Seven Heads but also to try to identify possible buyers for other assets. These potential sales would help Ramco to pay off £12m of its Seven Heads borrowings.

Its bankers have agreed to extend waiver agreements, while Ramco has granted its bankers three million warrants at 34p per share exercisable until the end of June 2010.

A major Ramco creditor has also agreed to defer a £1.6m debt until asset sales have been completed.  Ramco has also raised £1m through an institutional placing.

Earlier this year, Ramco said it had ended talks on a possible takeover offer for the company. Production problems at the Seven Heads field have dogged Ramco.

Ramco said 3 million warrants will be granted to the company's bankers with an exercise price of 34 pence per share. In a similar arrangement with a major creditor a STG1.55m debt will also be deferred until asset sales have been successfully concluded, Ramco said.

In April this year, Ramco began talks on a possible offer to buy it over but which were later called off. The company started the talks after running into trouble at its Seven Heads gas field off the south coast of Ireland.

The company suffered as flow rates at the field had turned out to be lower than expected.

by redjade Fri Jul 15, 2005 16:10

http://shelltosea.com

by eeekkkk Fri Jul 15, 2005 16:38

Corrib
During 2001, a petroleum lease was issued for the Corrib field in License 2/93, located 40 miles off the west coast of Ireland. The development will consist of six subsea wells, tied back to a processing terminal onshore via a 20-inch pipeline. Final planning approval for the onshore terminal is expected by the end of the first quarter of 2003. With approximately two years of onshore and offshore construction activities thereafter, production startup is targeted for first quarter of 2005. Marathon has an 18-percent non-operating interest in the Corrib field.
Seven Heads
During 2002, Marathon entered an agreement with the Seven Heads group to provide gas processing and transportation services, as well as field operating services for the Seven Heads gas being brought to the Kinsale offshore production facilities beginning in 2003. This agreement will result in Marathon providing capacity to process and transport between 60 mmcfd to 100 mmcfd of Seven Heads gas, and enhances the value and utilization of Marathon’s Kinsale Head infrastructure.
As part of this agreement, the Seven Heads group (led by operator Ramco Oil & Gas Limited) will share in the costs of operating the Kinsale Head facilities. This agreement is subject to the approval of Ireland's Minister of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources. Estimated to contain proven and probable natural gas reserves of approximately 300 billion cubic feet, the Seven Heads field is located 35 kilometers to the southwest of Marathon's Kinsale Head field and processing infrastructure in the Celtic Sea off the southern coast of Ireland.

by Richard Whelan Sun Jul 17, 2005 13:19

©

by Richard Whelan Sun Jul 17, 2005 13:20

©

by krossie Mon Jul 18, 2005 11:39

here's a report on the case that tries to explain some of the issues

High Court Hearing July 14th.

The Rossport 5 went back to jail last thursday.
After an apparent flurry of activity by Minister Dempsey, through an IFA go-
between, Dempsey conceded yet a further review of the Shell project, by way
of encouraging the Rossport 5 to 'purge their contempt', and be released.
The previous two reviews commissioned by the minister, it turned out, were
both done by firms associated with Shell and therefore not independent.
The Review that Minsiter Dempsey was offering in no way met the
requirements of the Rossport 5. It was not, they say, going to look at the
danger of rupture and explosion, nor were they to be allowed to input to the
review, and it was to be done by Patroleum Affairs Division within the
Minster's own department, and therefore was totally compromised before it
started, through this division's involvement in the department as advocates for
Shell.
All this came about before the court appreance om Thursday morning before
President of the High Court, Justice Finnegan.
In Court, Shell proposed to change the terms of the injunction, first issued on
April 4th, to make explicit the fact that the Minsiter had not given consent to
the work of installation of the pipeline. Shell shuffled around the issue of
whther the original injunction had been illegal.
Justice Finnegan simply invited the prisoners to 'purge their contempt' given
this new wording offered by Shell. In view of the fact that the origianal
injunction was therefore illegall itself, the prisoners could not agree to purge
contempt of an injunction given illegally.
However when the prisoners looked to bring a motion for an injunction to be
considered against Shell to restrai Shell from undertaking any works of
installation on the pipeline, without the Minsiter's consents, as required under
the Gas Act of 1946, the judge refused.
The Judge, accepted shell's argument that they should not be let to do so, on
grounds that those in contempt of court cannot be let to bring motions to the
court until they purge their contempt!
A photograph which the prisoners wished to introduce which clearly shows
that Shell has already begun the installation of the pipeline, despite the fact that
this work is illegal because not compliant with Ministerial consents, was
refused by the Judge, who determined that the prisoners' motion be struck out
altogether as disallowed in view of their beng in contempt, and those in
contempt of Court could not bring any such motions to apply for an injunction.

by Sruwaddacon Bay Tue Jul 26, 2005 22:54

EEI comes into Sruwaddacon Bay right under Dooncarton Mountain, which slopes steeply into the bay. They proceed without any permission to hoke a large trench out in the bay. Shortly afterwards the major landslide destroys the land for ever of all those who live on its slopes. And, in answer to one gobshites remarks, the people who live here are not ignorant idiots who know nothing. No need for your ignorant remarks which are better ignored due to your crass stupidity.

by Freedom Fries Tue Nov 22, 2005 18:44

from the Freedom Institute Blog:

The future of the pipeline must be decided by law, democratically, by those charged to make the relevant decisions. It is not acceptable that development issues be subjected to a mob rule test by which interest groups obstuct the property of others and seek to force the hand of those engaging with the authorities under the direction of the government to find a lawful resolution of the situation.

Should it be required, the gardai should be available to ensure that the line between protest and violation of property rights is not crossed.

http://www.freedominst.org/2005/11/protest-procedure-and-property-rights.html

by Erin Og Mac Bhreatain Mon Feb 06, 2006 00:57

Discomfort continues for those on whom the GAS is inflicted

The body (politic/ state) is thus relieved of the nasty hot air of overindulgence

That cheap plastic baloon at the fictional "Celtic Tiger" party

thin shrivelled and empty and trash at the end of distraction

Once all of the goodies of nature are gone.

We know that these precious reserves of energy wont last forever

Yes - fleeting wealth for a cushion holed minority of the educated illiterate

Illiterate because an elitism is born of forgetting how to read nature

A language older than any man's excuse for pain

To extract gas at all is a a permanent response to a temporary problem

All the knowledge in the world can do nothing for the child who forgets how to play

Economic Growth is a foolish and unnecessary seriousnes

The fruit of an illusion of greatness and of wealth

A hollow Shell

Filled with hot air

Expanding Apetite

Over consumption

Consume so much and it seems important

to expand further

to release GAS

So we suffer a terrible stink.

Here is a most grossly indencent case of

FARTING in PUBLIC.

Solution?

The mind as Government or "State" MUST BEGIN listening to the BODY - the PEOPLE

This starts with each one of us

LISTEN TO YOURSELF - to your own body

before you speak , before you act, before you buy