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 29, 2013
“The cheers could be heard all the way from London to Athens, Dubai, Singapore, Cape Town, Sydney and throughout the GAC world last night when our sponsored team Crystal Palace beat Watford and won promotion to the Premier League.
It’s at times like this that we really feel the appeal of ‘The Beautiful Game’ and enormous pride that we have been the Club’s main sponsor since 2004.
For news of Crystal Palace and other teams and athletes we support, as well as the latest updates from the GAC Group, check out our pages on Facebook (www.facebook.com/GACgroup) and LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com/company/gac-group).”
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Posted: May 28, 2013
Providence: Barryroe Well
Nick Webb – 26 May 2013
Providence Resources’ oil find at Barryroe, off the coast of Cork, could generate taxes of €4.5bn over the life of the well, according to a new report from PriceWaterhouseCoopers.
This is the equivalent to the entire annual corporate tax take in Ireland for 2011, according to PwC.
The State, it says, would earn money from the corporate tax and from the windfall taxes generated by the huge find off the south coast.
The PwC report suggests that 10 finds equivalent to Barryroe would have the potential to generate 13,500 jobs during the development phase and 11,500 jobs during the production phase of these fields. An entire new specialist oil services industry would need to be developed near the south coast to cater for the oil fields.
The Barryroe find is a game-changer for the Irish oil industry, as it is the first commercial oil field discovered off Ireland.
Recent months have seen massive activity off Ireland’s coast with the arrival of Kosmos, Cairn Energy and other new parties seeking to explore for oil. Fastnet Oil & Gas last week announced surveys had revealed that its Kinsale acreage could potentially contain up to two billion barrels of oil.
The next two months will prove critical for the future of Tony O’Reilly’s Providence Resources. Results of drilling at its Dunquin well may come through in July, while the €400m-listed firm may also ink a deal to farm out a major chunk of its valuable Barryroe oil field off Cork.
Industry sources believe that Providence may be taken over by an oil major such as Petronas or Exxon if the Dunquin results are positive.
However, at the same time as all this exploration is under way, the Government is examining whether to hike taxes levied on oil finds.
Irish Independent
http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/providence-oil-find-could-generate-45bn-for-state-says-new-report-29297083.html
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