Gulf Daily News (Bahrain) Shell halts work on Irish pipeline: “DUBLIN: Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell said it was suspending operations on the ($1.1 billion) Corrib gas project until the end of the year to allow time for a safety review and to resolve the dispute with residents.”: Saturday 6 August 2005

DUBLIN: Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell said it was suspending operations on the ($1.1 billion) Corrib gas project until the end of the year to allow time for a safety review and to resolve the dispute with residents.

"While we strongly believe that all safety aspects of the onshore pipeline have been fully addressed, we want the public to have confidence that every reasonable step has been taken," Shell Ireland Managing Director Andy Pyle said in a statement.

Ireland's natural resources minister has offered to appoint an intermediary to broker talks between the oil giant and residents in western Ireland who oppose its plans for an onshore gas pipeline.

"He's offered to appoint an intermediary if requested by both parties," a spokesman for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources Minister Noel Dempsey said.

Shell Exploration & Production Ireland is embroiled in a bitter dispute with residents of Rossport, County Mayo, over the safety of the pipeline, which it plans to run for nine kilometres inland from its gas platform to a processing plant.

Rossport residents, concerned about the high-pressure pipeline running past their homes, want Shell to process the gas on an offshore shallow water platform instead.

The row escalated in late June after five residents were jailed for contempt of court for refusing not to obstruct the laying of the pipeline through their lands.

http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Story.asp?Article=118717&Sn=BUSI&IssueID=28139

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