Shell awaiting sea tunnel decision

Global News

Publishing Date: 26 Aug 2010 3:41pm GMT
Author: World Tunnelling

TBM-driven tunnels

Shell E&P Ireland (SEPIL), a division of oil giant Shell, is currently awaiting the outcome of a planning application lodged recently for the construction of a tunnel under Sruwaddacon Bay in western Ireland. The 4.9km tunnel will carry a pipeline between the Glengad landfall site onshore to the gas processing terminal at Bellanaboy.

The Corrib gas reservoir is located 80km off the west coast of Ireland and lies 3km under the seabed, below 350m of water. The proposed tunnel will mean that the 83km long pipeline laid just below the sea bed will not have to run under the bay. This is hoped will satisfy local activists who have mounted considerable opposition to the pipeline and its effects on the ecology and residents of the bay area.

SEPIL recently began preliminary borehole drilling in Sruwaddacon Bay, a tidal estuary that is seen as constituting an important marine habitat and a designated ‘Special Area of Conservation’. In addition to its application, it has also lodged a revised Environmental Impact Scheme (EIS).

Terry Nolan, SEPIL managing director, said: “An Bord Pleanála [Ireland’s planning authority] asked us to alter the pipeline route and to bring it through Sruwaddacon Bay. We have designed a tunnel to carry the pipeline under the bay because it will have the least environmental impact.”

The decision of the planning authority is expected within the next few months.