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Licensing Process

Commission for Energy Regulation (CER) Licensing Process for the Shannon LNG Pipeline


On December 9th 2009, the Commission for Energy Regulation (CER) gave a licence to Shannon LNG to construct the 26km Shannon LNG pipeline with only a few interesting conditions.

The pipeline must be built within 5 years of the consent given (the LNG terminal itself is 10 years).

The pipeline will need further approval on safety grounds before it actually goes into operation. The safety assessment will not be done until the LNG terminal  is built and the CER has not completed, therefore, any safety assessment of the LNG project itself.

The CER said that they undertook a safety assessment of the pipeline proposal but gave no details of who did this assessment or the findings which is interesting as the CER does not have any LNG expertise and the CER found that there was no requirement for a marine LNG risk assessment.


So, even though there has still been no risk assessment of the ship movements of LNG, and despite the recent European Court of Human Rights case into the exact same lack of a marine risk assessment in the Milford Haven LNG terminals and the recent Corrib Pipeline ruling where the corrib pipeline is not allowed to be built in an area if an accident would pose a danger to residents  the CER has just proved it does not give a damn about the safety issues surrounding what will become the most sizeable hazard in Ireland.

Even more bizzarely Denis Cagney, Director of Gas at the CER, stated to 'Safety Before LNG' in its decision notification on December 9th 2009 that:


" I should add, incidentally, that Shannon LNG will not be entitled to actually operate the proposed LNG terminal until it has applied for and received a license to operate from the Commission. A prior condition to issuing such a license would be that the Commission has approved a Safety Case for the facility."

So, the CER, which will obtain even more unaccountable powers with the proposed 'Petroleum Exploration and Extraction (Safety) Bill 2007 "  has officially stated that it will wait until the €500 million LNG terminal and Pipeline is built before doing a safety assessment to determine whether or not it should have been built in the first place.
Click here to download the complete file on the Submission   by 'Safety Before LNG', the CER oral hearing submissions and the CER decision on the Shannon LNG Pipeline Licencing Process - including attachments (18.7 MB)
Click here to download the  file on the Submission   by 'Safety Before LNG', the CER oral hearing submissions and the CER decision on the Shannon LNG Pipeline Licencing Process - excluding attachments (7.9 MB)
Transcripts of CER  Oral Hearing, Brandon Hotel, Tralee, 26th May  2009
Download of CER  Decision and Reports - 9th December 2009 (2.9 MB)