Noel Dempsey (Meath, Fianna Fail)

While Ireland does not currently maintain a strategic gas reserve, commercial reserves of natural gas are held by licensed natural gas shippers and suppliers, including BGE. Several other EU member states, including the United Kingdom, operate a similar regime.

I have been informed by BGE that, at current levels, its Kinsale reserves would supply 50% of non-daily metered customer requirements, that is, for small business and domestic use for up to 50 days. This is in addition to stocks held by BGE in the United Kingdom.

The Commission for Energy Regulation has responsibility for monitoring on an ongoing basis the security of natural gas supply. The commission publishes an annual gas capacity statement. This provides a seven-year rolling forecast of capacity, flows and customer demand to assess the adequacy of the Irish gas transmission system, including the interconnectors. The gas capacity statement also considers whether projected supplies of gas, from indigenous sources, imports and storage, are sufficient to meet forecast demand. A key finding of the 2005 gas capacity statement is that even under unusually cold weather conditions, the Irish gas transmission system will cope with forecast demand.

Bord Gáis Éireann, in its role as the natural gas transmission system operator, has developed contingency plans in the event of a curtailment in gas supplies. Those plans include switching gas-fired power generation plant to alternative fuels, seeking voluntary reductions from large industrial gas consumers and utilising BGEs reserves from the south-west Kinsale reservoir.

I am aware that the Commission for Energy Regulation, CER, is in discussion with Marathon Oil Ireland Limited about the development of commercial natural gas storage facilities at south-west Kinsale. It recently completed a public consultation on the proposed regulatory regime for the storage facility. Further consultation on a natural gas storage licence will commence shortly. It is planned that the storage facility will be operational by the middle of 2006. In the context of the all-island energy market development framework, the scope for a common North-South approach on storage and liquefied natural gas is also being jointly explored.

There is no EU obligation to establish or hold strategic reserves of natural gas. My Department is working to transpose EU Directive 2004/67 on measures to safeguard security of natural gas supply, which will further define the roles and responsibilities of gas market players relative to security of supply, in the context of the liberalised natural gas market.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House.

The directive also provides for the establishment of a gas co-ordination group to facilitate the co-ordination of national measures between member states in the event of a major supply disruption. The group met informally on 4 January in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine impasse and the group will meet regularly from now on given the need for the EU to co-ordinate more effectively on security of gas supply.

The 2005 gas capacity statement by the Commission for Energy Regulation shows that in 2004, 81% of Ireland's natural gas was imported via the interconnectors with 19% supplied by indigenous production. At the end of 2004, total remaining indigenous gas reserves in fields under production or development are estimated to have been approximately 960 billion cubic feet, that is, just less than a trillion cubic feet. Taking account of subsequent production the estimated remaining reserves at the end of November 2005 were approximately 940 billion cubic feet.

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