Northern Ireland’s Minister Rejects Tamboran’s Application for County Fermanagh
Northern Ireland’s Minister for the Environment Mark Durkan rejected an application to drill for shale gas near Belcoo, County Fermanagh.
On July 21, Australia-based Tamboran Resources confirmed its intention to drill a borehole to collect rock samples, saying that no hydraulic fracturing would have taken place. In that occasion, the company informed the Department of Environment and the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment of its detailed plans to carry out this work before 30th September 2014.
According to Durkan, more information would have needed to take a balanced decision. Indeed, the rejection was said to have to do with missing data about the area.
“I have given very careful consideration to Tamboran’s proposal to drill a core of rock from Cleggan Quarry near Belcoo and whether this is permitted development under current legislation. I have concluded that this is Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) development requiring full planning permission and that permitted development rights do not apply,” Durkan said, adding that the decision has to do with some unregulated activities in the area, whose impact on the environment has not been yet assessed.
In this sense, the precautionary principle was the reason of the decision.
REACTION
The company reacted with a short statement, as reported by The Irish Times.
“Tamboran Resources is deeply concerned with the announcement made by Environment Minister Mark H Durkan. The company is currently reviewing its position and will release a further statement in due course,” a spokesman commented.
In a previous note, the company explained why it wanted to push forward with its plans.
“We believe that the presence of natural gas in Northern Ireland could bring considerable benefits to the local and regional economy with the potential for billions of pounds of investment; hundreds and potentially thousands of jobs created locally and importantly for Northern Ireland a secure supply of energy that could last for decades and potentially help reduce local energy costs. However, we first need to make sure enough gas is there to be commercially viable and that we will not know for certain until the end of the licence period. This is just the first stage in that process,” Tony Bazley, Director of Tamboran Resources, said a couple of weeks ago.