Kinsale Head and Seven Heads Petroleum Lease areas

Consultation is closed

The Minister has received an application from PSE Kinsale Energy for the decommissioning of certain facilities of the Kinsale Head / Ballycotton gas fields and an application from PSE Seven Heads Limited for the decommissioning of certain facilities of the Seven Heads gas field. Production from the Kinsale Head gas field commenced in 1978, with Ballycotton and Seven Heads coming into production later. The fields are now coming to the end of their productive life. The facilities are located in the Celtic Sea, between approximately 40 and 70km off the County Cork coast and onshore at Inch, County Cork.

These applications cover the following activities:

Plugging and abandoning of development wells;

The removal of two platform topsides structures;

The removal of a number of subsea facilities.

These applications are the first of two. A further application will be made which will encompass all remaining structures in the gas fields. Details of the facilities and proposed work schedule are contained in the decommissioning plans for the gas fields below. Consent has been sought for approval of an addendum to the Plan of Development for both gas fields, in accordance with Section 13 and 13A of the Petroleum and Other Minerals Development Act 1960, as amended and also to alter and remove certain facilities from a designated area under Section 5(2) of the Continental Shelf Act 1960, as amended. The applications are accompanied by Environmental Impact Assessment Report and an Appropriate Assessment Screening Report. These reports cover the environmental impacts of the entire decommissioning of the facilities.

Submissions

Submissions for this consultation process closed on the 31st July 2018. A decision by the Minister on this application, once made, will be posted on this webpage and a State newspaper.

Submissions on the application should be made for the attention of the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment and submitted:

By email to padadmin@dccae.gov.ie or

In writing to the Petroleum Affairs Division, Department of Communications, Climate Action & Environment, 29-31 Adelaide Road, D02X285, Ireland.

Submissions for this consultation process closed on the 31st July 2018.

Responses to this consultation are subject to the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2014 (FOI) and Access to Information on the Environment Regulations 2007-2014 (AIE). Confidential or commercially sensitive information should be clearly identified in your submission, however parties should also note that any or all responses to the consultation are subject in their entirety to the provisions of the FOI Acts.

Please not that due to the size of the document the Environmental Impact Assessment Report has been split into several files

Volume 1

Volume 2: Part 1; Part 2: Part 3

Volume 3: Part 1; Part 2