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Flaring: “a fantastic way to spend New Year’s Eve”

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World Pipelines,


On 30 December 2015, gas from Ireland’s Corrib field began its flow of natural gas for the first time. The field is 83 km offshore from Mayo county, and is connected to the new refinery – Bellanboy Bridge Gas Terminal – via a 20 in. pipeline.

Shell E&P Ireland’s Managing Director, Ronan Deasy stated: “We are pleased to have completed the development of this unique project and to bring the Corrib field onstream. I would like to pay tribute to all those who contributed to delivering this critical energy project, which will continue to bring benefits to the region and the country for years to come.”

However, on New Year’s Eve – no less than 24 hrs after its first flow of natural gas – Shall warned residents that they should expect intermittent flaring, where any excess gas would be burned off.

Shell stated that it is “part of the normal start-up activities.”

As a result of the flaring, the residents were angry and upset over the activities, commenting on the incident as being “frightening”, “nothing normal”, “Like a supersonic boom” and that it “looked like the hill over by Pollathomas was on fire.”

Retrospectively, John Egan, a Director of Shell E&P Ireland released a video, stating: “For people like myself who worked on Corrib for a very long time, this is an extraordinary sight. These are Corrib gas molecules being flared off and we are now getting ready to sell this gas into the network to power businesses and homes all over Ireland. This is a fantastic way to spend New Year’s Eve, 2015.”

At present, €3.6 billion has been spent on the development of the Corrib gas field to produce the 260 million ft3/d of natural gas, the equivalent of 45 000 bpd of oil.

Edited from various sources by Stephanie Roker

Sources: RT, Mayo News, The Wall Street Journal, Irish Times

Read the article online at: https://www.worldpipelines.com/project-news/06012016/flaring-a-fantastic-way-to-spend-new-years-eve/

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