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Corrib gas controversy

title	Corrib gas controversy
date	November 2000 – December 2015
place	County Mayo, Ireland
causes	* Environmental concerns * Lack of public consultation * Arrest of protesters * Alleged excessive use of force by Gardaí
status	* Gas production commences in 2015 * Shell withdraws in 2018 * Activists continue to oppose the project
side1	* Government of Ireland * Royal Dutch Shell (2000-2018) * Statoil Exploration (2000-2021) * Vermilion Energy (2009-present)
side2	* Shell to Sea ** Rossport Five * Pobal Chill Chomáin * Friends of the Irish Environment

The Corrib gas controversy was a social protest campaign against the Corrib gas project in north-western County Mayo, Ireland. The project involves the processing of gas onshore through Broadhaven and Sruth Fada Conn bays in Kilcommon. Originally spearheaded by local advocacy groups Shell to Sea and Pobal Chill Chomáin, the protests later grew to national prominence due to the heavy-handed approach taken by the Garda Síochána and private security firms towards the protestors. The project was jointly managed by Shell E&P Ireland and Statoil Exploration Limited, and supported by the Irish government.

Despite the opposition, onshore gas production commenced in December 2015, albeit significantly behind schedule. Shell announced the sale of their stake to the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board in July 2017, and were fully divested from the project by November 2018. At the time of their departure, the losses incurred by Shell on the project were estimated to be around €1 billion.[1]

While the original aims of the protests were unsuccessful, Shell to Sea and other environmental groups continue to operate and highlight related issues. These include renegotiating the generous tax agreements made between oil and gas companies and the Irish government, the death of environmental activists worldwide, corruption by

Opponents and supporters

The Shell to Sea campaign, which is campaigning to have the gas processed at sea rather than inland, began during the imprisonment of the Rossport Five in 2005. It is an active group in the affected Kilcommon parish. Shell to Sea also has many supporters outside of the immediately affected area from across County Mayo and the rest of Ireland, as well as abroad. Shell to Sea have a website that is updated frequently. They refuse to be participants in the North West Development Forum (known as the Corrib Gas Forum or known locally as the 'Funny Forum') at which government ministers, Royal Dutch Shell and Mayo County Council hold occasional meetings, as the Forum refuses to consider the aspects of the project that people find most objectionable.[28]

Pobal Chill Chomáin, a group of local residents who live in the affected area of Kilcommon parish and live on both sides of Sruwaddacon Bay, also oppose the current plans for the project, due to concerns about the health, safety and environmental impact of the onshore aspects of the scheme and cite Shell's record in similar projects.[29] They also refuse to participate in the North West Development Forum.[30][31][32]

Pobal Le Chéile is a local alliance of small and medium-sized local business people mainly from the Erris region who also oppose the current plans for the project. Unlike other local business people, they have refused to take money or gifts from Shell. They work closely with Pobal Chill Chomáin and have also refused to participate in the Forum.

The Pro Gas Mayo Group (PGMG) was a small pressure group based in County Mayo and successor to the Pro Erris Gas Group. It considered the Shell to Sea campaign to be threatening employment in Mayo.[33] It had three known members, Pádraig Cosgrove (from Bangor Erris), Harry Walsh (from Kilmaine, some 100 miles from the affected area), a former non-party councillor on Mayo County Council, and Brendan Cafferty from Ballina (a former Garda). None of its known members reside in the affected community of Kilcommon Parish.

A poll conducted throughout the county by TNS/MRBI on behalf of RTÉ's Nuacht in September 2006 showed that 60% of respondents agreed the gas processing terminal should be located offshore, with 23% supporting Shell and the government's decision to build inland.[34] The offshore alternative had strongest support amongst those aged under 49 years, and those residing in Castlebar/Ballinrobe/Claremorris and Westport/Belmullet areas.

Many environmental activists criticised the Green Party for joining Fianna Fáil in coalition after the 2007 general election, as the terms of the programme for government did not include a reversal or renegotiation of the proposed gas pipeline and refinery.[35][36] Before being appointed as Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Eamon Ryan publicly supported the aims of the Shell to Sea campaign and the Rossport Five, and also attended their protests.[37] The Green Party was also criticised for failing to launch an independent review of the decision, as stipulated by the party in a motion passed at their annual convention in 2007.[38][39] The motion, passed at the February 2007 annual conference in Galway, said that "...the Green Party in government will not approve a production pipeline consent being signed as part of the Corrib gas project until the completion of a full independent review of the best development concept for the concept."[40]

Protests (2005–2008)

In January Shell sent registered letters to a number of land owners, who were denying the company access to their land, that they would take court action against them.[47] Following the granting of planning permission, local people started blockading the terminal site and compounds set up for pipeline construction. On 4 April 2005 Shell obtained a high court order restraining protesters from restricting access to its Rossport compound. In the week of 20 June it obtained a temporary injunction. On 29 June Shell sought a committal order against five people for breach of the temporary injunction. This led to the imprisonment of the five men who became known as the Rossport Five,.[48] An Independent TD (member of Irish Parliament), Jerry Cowley liaised regularly with members of the Rossport Five while they were in jail. It is important, as a matter of historical record, that the Shell to Sea campaign did not arise following the jailing of the 5 men; the name Shell to Sea was adopted in January 2005 and therefore precedes the jailing later in that year. Shell to Sea, together with the Solidarity Camp, formed the backbone of resistance to and raising awareness of what was happening in north Mayo.A 300 km 'Long Walk' from Rossport, Co Mayo to Dublin took place in August 2006 to highlight opposition to the project. It took 12 days.[49]

Integrated Risk Management Services (I-RMS), a security firm employed by Shell, began working in Glengad in the summer of 2008. Security men caused controversy when local journalists reported on them filming children swimming near Shell's Glengad compound in the summer of 2008. Local parish priest Fr. Michael Nallen told media that the security men made his parishioners prisoners in their own area.

On 9 September 2008, Maura Harrington began a hunger strike in protest at the arrival of the pipe-laying ship Solitaire into Broadhaven Bay, and stated she would refuse food until the vessel left Irish waters. She ended her protest on 19 September, after the ship was damaged and had to leave Ireland for repairs.[50][51]

On the night of 15 September 2008, a suspect package consisting of a plastic bag containing a bottle of petrol, a clock and a can of paint was found outside the Dublin HQ of Shell.[52]

Opposition (2009–2010)

In April 2009, protesters removed sections of a fence they asserted were erected illegally. On 23 April, Willie Corduff, a Pobal Chill Chomáin member, was hospitalised in the early hours of the morning after an alleged assault by masked people during a protest at the Glengad Shell works.[63][64][65] I-RMS later confirmed that employees had intended to remove Corduff, but found him standing up, and had him taken away by ambulance when he complained of chest pains.[66] The recent Frontline report has found that the assault on Willie Corduff needs to be reinvestigated by Gardaí from outside of County Mayo as I-RMS claims are not corroborated by ambulance and hospital records which verify that his injuries are consistent with having been physically assaulted.[67] Two films have been made in the locality: Pipe Down, which won the Best Feature Documentary at the Waterford Film Festival (2009)[68] and The Pipe, which was released on 8 July 2010 at the Galway Film Festival film and winner at the Waterford Film Festival (2010).[69]

In an effort to try and resolve the issues, the OECD is to host talks between Pobal Chill Chomáin and Shell Ireland, following a complaint from Pobal Chill Chomáin that the project violates OECD guidelines for multinational companies.[70]

Following a prolonged oral hearing in the Broadhaven Bay Hotel in Belmullet in May and June 2009 chaired by An Bord Pleanala many discrepancies were uncovered in Shell & partners' plans for Kilcommon parish and their plans were rejected once again by the Board chairman. They were told to devise a new plan to be submitted by October 2009 and after several extensions of time, RPS Group on behalf of the Corrib Gas partners, eventually submitted a new Environmental Impact Statement to the Planning Board on 31 May 2010, a plan which this time, envisages laying the Corrib gas pipeline buried under the length of Sruwaddacon Bay. On 30 June 2010 the Corrib gas project placed three separate planning notices for the project in national and local newspapers giving one month in which submissions can be entered. They also incorporated Glengad into their latest planning application, which was omitted from previous applications. Their maps of the proposed Corrib Gas pipeline also omit most of this well populated townland in which Shell intends to place some of its most contentious components. It is expected that another oral hearing will then be held to discuss this variation in early autumn.[71][72][73]

The Corrib Gas partners commenced the boring of 80 boreholes in Sruwaddacon Bay in 2010 to see what the substrate underlying Sruwaddacon Bay is like.[74][75][76]