Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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1236. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the status of all exploration and drilling licences issued to a company (details supplied) or pending following applications. [18989/19]

Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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A report on the status of all petroleum authorisations, including exploration licences, is published on a quarterly basis on my Department's website. The most recent such report was published on 31 March 2019.

Section 57 of the Petroleum and Other Minerals Development Act, 1960 also requires the Minister to lay before the Houses of the Oireachtas every six months a report detailing all exploration activities including petroleum authorisations granted during the period of the report. The last such report laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas was in respect of the six-month period ending 31 December 2018.

ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Ireland (Offshore South) Limited are the operator of two Frontier Exploration Licences and have a participating interest in a further five Frontier Exploration Licences.

The details of these Licences are as follows:

ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Ireland (Offshore South) Limited

The holder of a Frontier Exploration Licence must apply to the Minister if they wish to under exploratory drilling activities on the Licence. An application by CNOOC Petroleum Europe Limited to undertake exploratory drilling on Frontier Exploration Licence 3/18 is currently under consideration.