Statoil has welcomed first gas from the Corrib field after the Irish Government gave oil major Shell and its partners the final go-ahead.
The Norwegian operator said the output from the Corrib field would be an important addition to Statoil’s international production portfolio.
It comes after the Minister for Communication, Energy and Natural Resources gave consent for the pipeline, subject to 20 conditions related to environmental management, operation, control and monitoring.
The consent from the department was the final approval needed to bring gas from the Corrib field.
Statoil’s senior vice president Tove Stuhr Sjoblom, said: “We are very pleased to see production start at Corrib. The output from Corrib will be an important addition to Statoil’s international production portfolio.
“There have been several challenges for the operator and its partners to overcome on the road to this important milestone.
“The project has created many local jobs in the development phase and we are confident that the project will also contribute positively locally and nationally in the operational phase in terms of value creation and energy security.”
The Corrib field has been developed as a subsea-to-shore tieback solution with a pipeline leading the gas from the subsea wellheads to landfall near the village of Glengad and onwards through an onshore pipeline to a gas processing terminal around nine kilometres inland.
The gas is processed at the terminal before it is transferred into the Gas Networks Ireland (GNI) network, which delivers it to Irish consumers.
The Corrib project is a joint venture between Shell E&P Ireland Limited (45%), Statoil Exploration Ireland Limited (36.5%) and Vermilion Energy Ireland Limited (18.5%). Shell E&P Ireland Limited is the project’s operator.