Advances in exploration technology and the ability to tap into oil and gas resources which have been considered merely minor deposits up until now could revolutionise the exploration industry with huge rewards for countries such as Ireland, a conference was told in Cork yesterday.

Some 300 delegates from all over the world gathered in the city to discuss the future of exploration. The delegates were members of the International Federation of chemical, energy, mine and general workers union.(ICHEM)

An ICHEM report presented to the conference suggested that it would be possible from now on to commercially exploit smaller deposits of oil and gas around coastlines like Ireland.

But the downside, the document warned, was that rationalisation within the energy industry could mean massive job losses throughout the world up to the year 2005 and a huge loss of earnings in the coal mining industry.