Posted: March 4, 2014
Extract from http://www.irishexaminer.com/business/hobbs-turns-his-fire-on-oil-industry-with-campaign-to-maximise-returns-260729.html
“The first phase of Mr Hobbs’s Own Our Oil campaign was the launch of a book yesterday with the same title that aims to change the public’s attitude to Irish oil resources.
The book looks at Ireland’s geology, policy, taxation, history and planning when it comes to the oil industry and is dedicated to former minister Justin Keating who developed a strict taxation regime for Irish resources in the 70s.
The book is the first part of a campaign that is aiming to challenge the oil and gas industry in Ireland. Mr Hobbs warned that if the oil industry attempted to dismiss his campaign he would “take them apart”.
In the book, Mr Hobbs places a lot of emphasis on the difference in regimes between Ireland and Norway. Norway managed to build a sovereign wealth fund three times larger than Ireland’s national debt by effectively managing its natural resources.
However, the chairman of the Irish Offshore Operators’ Association, Fergus Cahill, said comparing the two countries is a fundamental mistake.
“Norway produce two million barrels of oil a day. We produce none. Norway exports natural gas, we import virtually all of ours. To compare the two is a fundamental mistake,” he said.
Mr Hobbs also drew parallels between the oil companies’ behaviour in Norway and Ireland. Mr Hobbs said that in the 1950s Norway was repeatedly told that there was no offshore oil in Norway.
Mr Cahill said that was what the companies believed at the time and it was only with improved technology that the Norweigian industry developed.
Mr Hobbs said they were not interested in trying to unpick any of the licensing options that are in place, but there was a need to try and maximise future returns from potential assets.
Up to a third of Ireland’s marine territory is already under licence from a period between the 1980s and 2007, when exploration terms signed ownership of various assets over to exploration companies, following then minister for energy Ray Burke’s dismantling of the tough taxation regime Justin Keating had put in place.
This means returns from these assets will disproportionately go to company shareholders and not the Irish taxpayer.”
By Vincent Ryan
Business Reporter
© Irish Examiner Ltd. All rights reserved
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Posted: December 17, 2013
From the Irish Examiner
Thursday, December 12, 2013
The founder and chief executive of Providence Resources, Tony O’Reilly, believes Cork could rival Aberdeen as a European hub for oil and gas exploration — if the county embraces the industry.
Providence’s Barryroe oil field could be pumping oil as early as 2018 and Cork will be on track to become an oil and gas hub, if people in the services industry make the investment of time and effort to install the full suite of service industries, he said.
Mr O’Reilly said people in the oil industry in Aberdeen are “very aware that Ireland is taking off and that Cork is going to be the place”.
He called for information sharing with the Scottish city. “I don’t know if you have ever been to Aberdeen, but Cork is a lot nicer and you have the tax rate here.”
Despite praising Ireland’s corporate tax rate, he took issue with a portrayal that Ireland’s oil and gas resources have been given away.
He argued that while the tax on extractive industries in Ireland was lower than in Norway and the UK, that is because they have proven industries in place.
Mr O’Reilly said that “Norway produces 2m barrels of oil every day hence they have a 78% tax rate; the UK a million-plus barrels a day; Ireland zero. Now hopefully we are going to change that, but you have to see it in that context.”
Referring to a report commissioned by Providence, Mr O’Reilly said: “The tax take from a field the size of Barryroe at the 40% tax that some people think is a giveaway, €4.5bn over its lifetime. That is just the corporation tax revenue. There is also the employment and all the associated benefits. That is equivalent to the whole corporate tax take in Ireland in 2011; that is just from one field.”
Mr O’Reilly said he is “evangelical” about promoting Ireland as the next frontier of oil and gas. He believes the stable political climate and government attitude will allow Ireland to emerge from the shadow of the North Sea.
“The activity like we are leading with Providence coupled with the proactive stance of the Government… coupled with the geopolitical climate in Ireland; you have got to understand that the majority of the oil in the world is in not nice places.
“This is a lovely place, I mean, we had guys working on the rig in Barryroe who could fly back into Cork and go play some golf at the Old Head. You can’t do that in Kurdistan”.
© Irish Examiner Ltd. All rights reserved
By Vincent Ryan
Business Reporter
http://www.irishexaminer.com/business/cork-could-be-europe-hub-for-oil-and-gas-252399.html
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Posted: October 3, 2013
Worker conned out of €4,000 in oil rig job scam
By Caroline Crawford
Irish Independent 03 October 2013
http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/worker-conned-out-of-4000-in-oil-rig-job-scam-29630565.html
A man who thought he’d secured his dream job abroad was left shattered to discover it was all a scam – which cost him €4,000.
Damien Glynn (32), from Oranmore in Co Galway, is warning others to beware after he discovered he had been the victim of a sophisticated fraud.
He had forked out €4,000, given up his job in Ireland and travelled over to Scotland to start his new post on an oil rig when he realised it was a con.
The scam uses information from established companies to offer jobs before conning their victims out of thousands.
It involves fake certificates from the Metropolitan Police, the UK Border Agency, a reputable gas and oil company, and an insurance firm and has already hit dozens of unsuspecting workers.
Mr Glynn, an engineer, had recently retrained to work on offshore rigs for the oil and gas industry when he was targeted. He was offered a post following an in-depth online interview and made arrangements to move to Aberdeen.
In order to secure the post, Mr Glynn was told he had to deal with an “immigration lawyer” to obtain the necessary work documents and an insurance company to receive travel insurance cover.
“I had googled the company and all the details stacked up, right down to the managing director’s details,” he said.
“The interview questionnaire was very detailed and very much linked to the work I’d be doing. It took four hours to fill out. After they got back to me with an offer, there was a lot of back and forth – up to 50 emails sorting things out.
PERMIT
“I didn’t understand why I needed the work permit but it was offshore work so I just went with it. I guess I just wanted to believe it too much.”
After forking out £960 for insurance and £815 for a work permit, which came to €2,300, Damien made arrangements to travel to Scotland to take up the post. But he then had to fork out twice for flights after the scam artists cancelled the first meeting at the last minute.
“I left my job in Galway and was arranging to meet with the company director in Scotland. He put me off for a week saying he was away, but I know now the money hadn’t gone through at that stage. I booked new flights but once they had the money I couldn’t reach them.
“I had flights booked so I went over anyway but when I arrived at the offices in Aberdeen I knew it was a scam. The receptionist knew what had happened as soon as I spoke to her and said there had been a few in that week,” he said.
Police in the UK and gardai have been made aware of the scam by the victims and the reputable firms whose logos have been used. However, they say that it is virtually impossible to track down such scam artists who close up within weeks and start up new scams.
Mr Glynn has now returned to Galway and managed to go back to his old job. He is urging others to be vigilant.
By Caroline Crawford
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Posted: July 29, 2013
Monday, July 29, 2013 by Geoff Percival- Irish Examiner
“The main representative body for Ireland’s exploration industry has called for the Government to hold back on plans to increase the potential tax take from companies drilling for oil and gas in Irish waters.
As it currently stands, the Government stands to receive between 25% and 40% of profits from any commercial field in Irish waters — of which there are currently none (although Barryroe, in the Celtic Sea, is on course to be the first).
However, Natural Resources Minister Pat Rabbitte recently said that he intends to seek independent expert advice, by the end of this year, on what level of fiscal gain should be achieved by Ireland and how the State should go about achieving it.
A recent Joint Oireachtas Committee called for the profit take to be as high as 80%, which would mirror the Norwegian model.
However, while it takes 78% of the profit from any commercial field in its waters, Norway — as well as having a more mature and developed offshore exploration industry than Ireland — also repays the same percentage of drilling costs to companies if said field is found to be dry; something Ireland — in current economic times — could not do.
At the end of a week that has seen international oil giant ExxonMobil put an indefinite pause on its interest in Ireland by finding no sign of any commercial hydrocarbons at initial drill at the highly-anticipated Dunquin field off the south-west coast of the country, the Irish Offshore Operators’ Association has called for a rethink by Government.
“We think the Government should be cautious in its approach,” said Fergus Cahill, chairman of the Irish Offshore Operators’ Association.
“It would be a great mistake to change the fiscal terms at this stage, especially in light of Dunquin, and at a time when we are just beginning to see more activity in Irish waters and more companies come in,” he added.”
http://www.irishexaminer.com/business/call-not-to-raise-oilgas-tax-take-238196.html
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Posted: May 13, 2013
From The Irish Examiner – By Geoff Percival
The Government is set to announce details of a major research contract to assess Ireland’s true oil and gas potential in the coming weeks, with industry rumours suggesting Italian giant Eni could be signed up as project partner.
The project will focus on a seismic survey off the west coast, to judge the oil and gas reserve potential of the under-explored Atlantic Margin area.
While the provision of “relevant depth of seismic data”, formed part of the recommendations from last week’s Providence Resources/PwC study into the potential of the Irish offshore sector, this seismic tender has been in the Government’s plans for nearly a year.
There has been speculation that Eni could be signing up to invest around €70m in carrying out the study, but the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources has been tight- lipped over the details.
A department spokesperson said that the procurement process has concluded and project planning is at an “advanced stage”. “It is anticipated that an announcement will be made shortly,” they added.
Minister of State at the Department, Fergus O’Dowd, first announced the intention to tender for a seismic data specialist to undertake the detailed survey last year, when addressing the Atlantic Ireland Conference in Dublin.
Speaking then, he said that such a survey would be “a huge step forward” and would go a long way to revealing the true potential of Ireland’s frontier basins.
The real genesis of the programme was the Government’s 2011 Atlantic Margin Licensing Round, which attracted a positive response from industry but still resulted in large areas on offer receiving no applications, despite being located in basins containing proven petroleum systems.
A lack of available seismic data was viewed as a significant contributing factor that needed to be addressed, according to Government. The small number of exploration wells drilled in Irish waters, over the past decade, has been blamed on low levels of available intelligence, with poor seismic data coverage previously described by Government as “the biggest impediment to exploration”.
Last week’s PwC study into the potential of Ireland’s offshore exploration industry suggested that thousands of jobs could be created per year and the Exchequer could significantly increase its annual corporate tax take if certain existing barriers to entry, for overseas players, are removed.
“The oil and gas industry has the potential to transform local and national economies, but a critical mass of activity is needed before a substantial indigenous supply base can develop,” it said.
Extract From http://www.irishexaminer.com/business/contract-to-assess-oil-potential-231055.html
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