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oil in ireland

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  • 21-11-2011 1:22pm
    #1
    fryup
    Registered Users Posts: 18,069 ✭✭✭✭


    Was watching the movie There will be blood the other night...which got me wondering has anyone ever prospect for oil in ireland? is there any?

    and what are the tell tale signs on the surface that show that there is oil?? does it have to be dry desert like land?


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    #2
    JeffK88
    Registered Users Posts: 627 ✭✭✭JeffK88


    I think i read somewhere that there could be huge deposits of Oil of the west coast and south coast .. You can read about it in this
    http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2011/0319/1224292581861.html


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    #3
    downsouth
    Closed Accounts Posts: 25 ✭downsouth


    Check out this video and you'll see the depressing truth.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76VOnzXQMsU


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    #4
    NotCarrotRidge
    Registered Users Posts: 160 ✭✭NotCarrotRidge


    downsouth wrote: »
    Check out this video and you'll see the depressing truth.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76VOnzXQMsU

    This is pretty poorly researched and understood.

    I accept that the amount charged for exploration licences is low, but there are substantial differences between Norway and Ireland. Remember the three little letters at the start? OIL? We don't have it. We have some gas, but oil in economic quantities has never been found here. Norway has bags of it. All the way up their coastline. Pretty much guaranteed.

    Additionally, it's shallow.

    It's close to two years since anyone has even drilled off the Irish coast. Take a look at the recently granted licences. How many of those company names did you recognise? Providence is probably the only one you've heard of (market cap of 125m on ISE, hardly a giant). Repsol is probably the biggest. If Ireland is giving away free oil, then why the hell are a bunch of minnows the only ones interested in our licences? Most of those companies will not even drill, they'll just re-work the existing data and hope that they can get one of the big boys to invest in their project.

    I take it that the makers of the documentary want an Irish exploration company to do take up all the licences and carry out the exploration, at least that seemed to be the gist of what they were suggesting. I have two points to make here:
    1. Have you seen the way Ireland runs its health system? Do you really think that we'd be any more efficient with an oil company?
    2. An oil well can cost up to €100 million, with €50 million being a fairly realistic average. The success ratio offshore here is really low, and that's just to find gas. I can't remember the exact success ratio, but I have a figure of about 1 in 20 finding hydrocarbons, so that's €1 billion for a hit. Only two gas fields have actually been put into production to date.

    On a final note, Norway refunds 78% of the costs of a dry well. They do that because the odds of success are so good. I saw no mention of that in the vox pop.

    I don't work in the oil industry, but I do have some understanding of it. I have no vested interest in this argument (aside from being Irish), but I find the populist, misinformed drivel that's trotted out very annoying.

    If Ireland had oil or gas in significant quantities I'd be all for us making plenty of money off it. To date, the results haven't stacked up, and that's why our exploration licences are relatively cheap.


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