Proactive Investors - Europa Oil & Gas Holdings PLC told investors it has published a third-party report which details the results of a study calculating the emissions associated with the development of a future 1 trillion cubic feet indigenous gas discovery in Ireland, within the company’s offshore Licence FEL 4/19.
It is independently researched by consultant ‘sustain:able’, which specialises in forecasting greenhouse gas emissions associated with the upstream oil and gas industry.
"This report demonstrates the strategic importance of developing this gas resource, which will not only contribute to Ireland's energy security, in line with the EU's stated goals of diversifying gas supply, but would also lead to significantly reduced emissions during the transition to renewable energy,” Europa chief executive said in a statement.
“Production from the licence would reduce Ireland's absolute emissions associated with imported gas from the UK by over 50%."
The report forecasts the average emissions intensity for indigenous gas on the licence to be 2.8kg CO2e per barrel of oil equivalent (boe) produced, which it highlighted is significantly better than seen at the existing gas field next door, Corrib, which averages about 5kg, according to sustain:able.
Imported gas to Ireland from the UK meanwhile has an average emissions intensity of 36kg, 12 times higher than the envisaged new Irish project would, whilst importing gas from the United States would measure some 145kg per boe, 50 times more than the estimate for a new project.
Europa’s statement highlights that the envisaged project would have very low emissions because of its close proximity to existing Corrib field, the quality of the gas and the quality of the reservoir (believed to be capable of high initial production rates).