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 IRELAND
North West Europe
The Republic of Ireland borders a large area of the north
Atlantic margin including the Rockall Trough in the west and the
Porcupine basin, due west of the Celtic Sea. However, there has been
only limited drilling success and the only commercial production is from
gas fields.
The search for oil and gas offshore Ireland commenced in
the late 1960s and three gas fields have so far been brought into
production whilst one will begin producing in 2005. For years the only
gas production came from the Marathon-operated Kinsale Head field, which
came onstream in 1978 in the Celtic Sea.
 It met all of Ireland’s gas needs until 1996, when a
pipeline was built to draw on imported gas from the UK. Kinsale Head and
the nearby small Ballycotton field are in decline but this area has seen
other small discoveries. Ramco brought the Seven Heads field, discovered
in 1973, onstream in December 2003. The Seven Heads area lies south west
of the Kinsale Head gas field, in water depths of 102 m.
It took just nine months from start of development to
first gas using a five well subsea system tied back to the Kinsale Head
A platform, where the gas is processed and exported through the existing
24" pipeline to the Inch Terminal near Cork. Production peaked at 2.1 mm
cubic metres per day before the field began to decline unexpectedly due
to reservoir barriers. In late 2004 production was restricted to 0.7 mm
cubic metres per day as the data was assessed.
The Corrib gas field was discovered in 1996 in the
Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of Ireland in the Slyne Trough
north of the Porcupine basin and approximately 80 kms west of the Mullet
peninsula of County Mayo. The water depth in the area is 355 m. The gas
is low in condensate and the development has eight planned subsea wells
tied back to a central gathering manifold, connected to an offshore
pipeline.
Reserves in the field are around 70% the volume of
Kinsale. A processing terminal is planned in County Mayo. The field has
had delays due to difficulties in obtaining planning consent for this
terminal. Although some small oil discoveries have been made in the
Celtic Sea no oil production has been achieved from Ireland except for
negligible amounts of condensate.
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