The fate of the Corrib gas project will be determined this week when An Bord Pleanála rules whether the developers can build a treatment plant in Co Mayo.
Now owned by the multinational, Shell, Enterprise Energy was granted permission to build the €200 million plant last year by Mayo County Council. The permission was appealed by a number of individuals and groups last August.
The decision is crucial for the project because gas cannot be fed into the national system without treatment at a reception plant, which will take about two years to build. The proposal has prompted controversy, however, with certain local people and environmentalists complaining about the initiative.
Two local people claimed in the High Court earlier this month that a nearby burial ground for unbaptised children had been unlawfully removed during work on a gas pipeline out to sea. Enterprise denied the allegation and an archaeologist told the court last Friday there was no recorded burial ground on the site.
Other objectors are understood to have said it would "completely destroy" the local environment, although the developers disputed that. They included the Ballinaboy-Lenamore Concerned Citizens Group, which wrote to the planning appeals board on August 17th last, saying the plant would be a "constant danger" to local people.
Enterprise and its partners changed their original planning application last year moving the site of the proposed plant to Ballinaboy from Pollathomas, near Broadhaven. If An Bord Pleanála grants the appeals, Enterprise will have to prepare new plans, putting back the production of "first gas" from the field.
An alternative scenario is that the board will grant permission to proceed with the initiative, but with conditions.
The board's decision will be based on an inspector's report which was finalised last April, following oral hearings in February. While a decision was expected in April, the board indicated it would extend its scrutiny of the plans for two months. At this stage, the inclination of the board is not known.
Last week the new Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Mr Ahern, ranked the stimulation of exploration as a priority in office.
There was a danger, he said, that such activity would fall off altogether if not revived.
But while Mr Ahern pointed to the Corrib project as an example of success, failure to receive permission for the reception plant would be a considerable setback for the initiative.
Enterprise is leading the project, which is a joint venture with the Norwegian firm Statoil and Marathon Petroleum, the US group. It has already agreed with Bord Gáis to sell about £300 million sterling (€463.8 million) of the gas to the State-owned company.
If the go-ahead is received, the gas will be filtered into a €127 million pipeline linking the treatment plant with Galway. That link will connect into the national grid which is being extended to Limerick from Dublin via Galway.
