Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

As stated in the Deputy’s question, suggestions of viable, lucrative and supra-normal profit generating finds are speculative. This type of speculation is regrettably inconsistent - I wish it were not - with experience to date.

In over 40 years of exploration there have been four commercial natural gas discoveries in the Irish offshore, namely, the Kinsale, Ballycotton and Seven Heads producing gas fields off the coast of Cork and the Corrib gas field off the coast of North Mayo, which has not been brought ashore yet. There have been no commercial discoveries of oil to date, although one would never think that with some of the commentary.

In 2011 alone the Norwegian authorities approved 11 new oil-gas production facilities. The employment, economic and fiscal dividend from oil and gas that is enjoyed by Norway is the product of nearly 60 years of oil and gas production based on proven prospectivity.

There has been a modest but welcome increase in the level of interest in oil and gas exploration off our coast in recent years, yet the fact remains that the Irish offshore is relatively under-explored and its petroleum potential is largely unproven. Ireland’s focus needs to be on how to encourage an increase in the level of exploration drilling. The Dunquin well, which is being drilled by ExxonMobil on Frontier Exploration Licence 3/04, will be the only well spudded in the Irish offshore in either 2012 or 2013.

Over the years Ireland, along with many other countries, has continually reviewed, adapted and evolved its regulatory and fiscal terms to ensure they remain fit for purpose, and that process will continue. As I stated during the recent debate on the report of the former Joint Committee on Communications, Natural Resources and Agriculture on the subject of offshore oil and gas exploration, my intention is to seek additional independent expert advice, by year end, on what level of fiscal gain is achievable for the people of Ireland, and the mechanisms best suited to produce such a gain.

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