Irish Government approves floating LNG emergency facility
On Tuesday, the Irish government announced that it had approved the development of an emergency temporary facility for importing liquefied gas (LNG) and storing it.
Ireland is one out of five EU members without domestic storage. The government says this is a problem in the event that one or both subsea interconnectors are damaged.
The emergency reserve is a floating storage unit and regassification (FSRU) with a capacity of 170,000 cubic meters of LNG. It will be able supply 200,000 domestic gas customers on average for six months.
Gas Networks Ireland will own it on behalf of Ireland.
The Department of Environment, Climate and Communications stated that the measure was a temporary one, aimed at reducing the risk of fossil fuel assets becoming stranded. It is only intended for emergencies and does not support an increase in gas demand.
The reserve will be compliant with EU regulations that require that, in the case of disruption of its main gas infrastructure a member must have the capacity to meet the total gas demand on a day when there is a high demand.
Ireland is switching from fossil fuels and moving to cleaner energy sources as part of its goal to reduce greenhouse gases by 42% compared to 2005 levels by 2030.
Ireland's fiscal watchdogs and climate experts warned that the country may have to pay EU-compliance costs between 8 billion and 26 billion euro ($8,4 billion to $27.2billion) if they do not implement their emission-cutting plans quickly by 2030. Reporting by Nina Chestney, Editing by David Goodman
(source: Reuters)
