Kilcolgan Residents Association

March 7th, 2008

Re: Serious New Information on Höegh LNG and Irish Sea Offshore Gas Storage for PA0002 post oral hearing into the proposed LNG terminal in County Kerry.

Since the fast-track oral hearing into the proposed LNG terminal at Tarbert, County Kerry held from January 21^st to 30^th 2008, profoundly-serious new information has come to light which is so important that it will have to be taken into consideration if a fully-informed decision is to be made.

This information covers the following 8 areas:

1. The Norwegian LNG company, Höegh LNG, has announced its intention to develop another Offshore LNG terminal 35 Kilometres also off the coast of Blackpool in Morecambe Bay – in the Irish Sea. The project – called “Port Meridian Offshore Morecambe Bay”¹- will use SRV technology, which is an LNG vessel with onboard LNG vaporisers.

Separately, a new offshore gas storage facility, also in the Irish Sea 24 Kilometres off the coast of Britain and approximately 100 miles from Dublin is at an advanced planning stage and is expected to come on stream by 2011. This real, tangible example of an offshore gas storage facility so close to Ireland proves categorically that the offshore alternative proposed by us at the oral hearing and planned by Exxon Mobil off the coast of New York, is able to be put into practice in Irish waters and cannot now be ignored as a viable and safe alternative to the proposed LNG terminal at Tarbert.

The “Gateway Gas Storage Project”² is being project-managed by Stag Energy Development Company Ltd for Gateway Storage Co. Ltd. Gateway is building a natural gas storage facility to store natural gas offshore in 20 man-made underground caverns, created specially in the salt strata underlying the Irish Sea. Gateway has stated that, once commissioned, the facility will help to substantially improve the security of energy supplies for both the UK and the Irish Markets.

Both Gateway and Höegh LNG have highlighted the benefits of their projects as having no negative visual impact and especially of enhancing safety to the general public. Once completed, a permanent 500 metre safety zone, representing a total 12 square kilometre exclusion zone, will be created around the whole facility. This is therefore setting an extremely serious precedent which the Health and Safety Authority should now be made aware of in its evaluation of the Hess LNG project at Tarbert and which An Bord Pleanála should take into account in its evaluation of the sterilisation of the remaining Landbank and risk to the residents and landowners of Kilcolgan. This offshore exclusion zone in the Irish Sea does not even have to consider the general public meaning that any onshore exclusion zone would obviously have to be larger than that.

An Executive meeting of Blackpool Council took place on February 13^th, 2008 to consider both the Gateway Gas Storage and Höegh LNG Port Meridian Terminal projects³. The Executive meeting recommended acceptance of the project by the Council subject to receiving assurances from the Health and Safety Commission that there will be no risks of explosion from that facility to Blackpool residents or visitors. Both projects, although not connected, can operate in parallel.

Rudall Blanchard Associates, a specialist environmental and planning consultancy, completed the Environmental Impact Assessments⁴ and is acting on behalf of both Gateway and Höegh LNG.

2. Exxon Mobil has decided to press ahead with its drilling commitment on its giant Dunquin prospect in Porcupine basin off the west coast of Kerry. On February 21^st 2008 it announced that it is looking for farm-in partners to allay the cost of drilling. ExxonMobil said two prospects have been identified, Dunquin North and Dunquin South. Both are anticipated to hold gas or gas/condensate with the estimated potential to hold over 18 trillion cubic feet of gas; Corrib holds only one trillion cubic feet.⁵ Throughout the oral hearing into the proposed Hess LNG terminal at Tarbert it was claimed that Ireland was running out of gas because Corrib was only expected to provide 40% of national gas needs at most when it comes fully on stream. This means that in the medium term, Ireland will be a net exporter of Gas, as Norway and the UK currently are. This issue on whether or not Ireland will become a net exporter of gas in the medium term needs to be reassessed as this would bring into question the stated need for an onshore LNG terminal – supplying gas to Ireland. It would seem now that the aim in the medium term will be to use the terminal for even more export of gas via the pipelines to the UK and Continental Europe from Ireland. Why put our lives at risk if that is the case?

3. Shannon LNG and Hess LNG stated throughout the oral hearing that Ireland is running out of gas, yet Hess Exploration Ireland have just taken a 42% share in two exploration licences from the Norwegian group Statoil, in partnership with Shell Ireland, in the Slyne-Erris Basin⁶. This proves that even HESS itself is really of the opinion that there are huge quantities of gas in Ireland and the firms are expected to start drilling in 2008.

4. Marathon Oil announced on February 20^th 2008 that it is selling its Irish operations. The depleted reservoirs could therefore be bought out by the Irish state and used as a natural gas storage facility as proposed by the Gateway Gas Storage facility in the Irish Sea. Indeed, within hours of the Marathon announcement, Bord Gáis Éireann chief executive, John Mullins, said the State-owned gas company would be taking a serious look at acquiring some, or all of Marathon’s Irish assets⁷. Bord Gáis would be interested in Marathon’s stake in the Corrib gas field and the strategic undersea storage facilities owned and operated by Marathon. Bord Gáis has the resources and access to funds to comfortaly buy some or all of the assets on offer. This therefore brings into question the need for a dangerous onshore LNG terminal at Tarbert.

5. We believe that serious misrepresentation by Shannon Development has taken place at the Oral Hearing in Tralee from January 21^st -30^th 2008. Shannon Development has NO REMIT for attracting industrial development since this role was taken off them in 2005 following an announcement by Micheal Martin TD that “the existing enterprise support functions carried out by the Company in relation to both the indigenous and overseas enterprises will be assumed by the national agencies, Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland”⁸. This means that all expert opinion given by Shannon Development at the Oral Hearing had no value as they are no more than property owners and in our opinions completely misrepresented their actual areas of expertise throughout the eight days of the oral hearing. Shannon Development misrepresented their organisation as an inward investment facilitator, we believe. They should have outlined their remit clearly so anything they had to say could be taken in context. We are now of the opinion that the IDA and Enterprise Ireland should answer the questions that were originally posed to Shannon Development on how they expect a top-tier Seveso II LNG site with an exclusion zone around it to attract new industry to an area which is designated in the County Development Plan as lands “for a premier deep-water port and for major industrial development and employment creation”.

6. An earthquake measuring 5.2 on the Richter Scale hit the UK on February 27^th 2008 – the largest in over a quarter of a century. No account has been taken of the consequences of an earthquake on the proposed development.⁹

7. The “Planning (Location of Hazardous Sites) Bill [Number 55]” was introduced in the British House of Commons by Mr. Bob Spink MP (Castle Point) on January 15^th 2008¹⁰. The Bill will require the introduction of binding guidance regarding minimum distances between developments classified as Control of Major Accident Hazard sites and other specified types of building; and for connected purposes: The Bill was ordered to be read a Second time on Friday 6 June 2008, and to be printed. We believe that in the absence of specific legislation in Ireland on exclusion zones around top-tier Seveso II sites, the HSA should await the outcome of this Bill for the precedent of best practice it will set for Ireland.

When introducing the Bill, Mr. Spink stated that “the Bill seeks to improve protection for communities across Britain from the new development of potentially dangerous industrial sites. It will ensure increased safety by giving the Health and Safety Executive a framework for COMAH plant siting decisions, thereby improving the consistency of such decisions and affording a predetermined level of protection for communities.” He argued that his Bill “would increase and formalise the protection afforded to communities” and that it would “give clarity and certainty to applicants, the HSE and planning authorities, saving time, expense and much community anguish.” He stated that the “Planning Bill fails conspicuously to give the necessary procedural rigour for the infrastructure planning commission (IPC) to deal with the location of hazardous sites.”  He argued that the Planning Bill “will cause more difficulties” as “the location of a dangerous plant will be decided by an unelected quango”. We feel that the Bill deals with the same issues as we are faced with in Ireland and would like both the HSA and An Bord Pleanála to take cognisance of the issues raised therein.

8. Recent reports in the media since the oral hearing took place have raised issues that we feel ought to be considered by An Bord Pleanála and the HSA in its consideration of the LNG planning application:

   1. Calls have been made for an inquiry into alleged profiteering by energy giants following the announcement, on January 21^st 2008, by British Gas of a 500% increase in profits.¹¹.

   2. Dr. Jerry Havens and Dr. James Venart have had another peer-review article accepted for publication by “The Journal of Hazardous Materials” on 7 February 2008 entitled “Fire Performance of LNG Carriers Insulated with Polystyrene Foam”¹².

The Irish Constitution – Bunreacht na hEireann – states in Article 40 (1) that “All citizens shall, as human persons, be held equal before the law”. It states in Article 40 (3)(1) that “The State guarantees in its laws to respect, and, as far as practicable, by its laws to defend and vindicate the personal rights of the citizen”. And in Article 40(3)(2) it states that “The State shall, in particular, by its laws protect as best it may from unjust attack and, in the case of injustice done, vindicate the life, person, good name, and property rights of every citizen.”

We expect that An Bord Pleanála and the HSA, as an organ of the state should uphold these aforementioned constitutional rights in our interest. As residents of a sparsely-populated area we want to be treated with the same degree of protection from danger as residents of a more densely populated area, such as Dublin would be as obliged by Article 40(1).

Our right to life is being threatened by the siting of an LNG terminal close to our homes and properties where world-renowned LNG expert Dr. Jerry Havens clearly stated in the oral hearing how people within a three-mile radius would be in danger in the case of an accident. Under Article 40(3)(1) and 40(3)(2) we now formally request that our lives and property be protected and that the consequences of an LNG accident be taken into considerations as opposed to the purely probability-based (and, in our opinion, unconstitutional) approach of the Health and Safety Authority – especially since an example of a perfectly safer alternative is now being put into practice in the Irish Sea. We equally ask, for the same constitutional reasons, that this new information be taken on board in the decision-making process because we are of the opinion that we, as a country, had best be careful about the freedoms of individuals that we take away in order to benefit a larger group or organisastion.