I Smell Gas! Better Ring Some Foreign Corporations
The Constitution of Ireland reads:
Article 10
- All natural resources, including the air and all forms of potential energy, within the jurisdiction of the Parliament and Government established by this Constitution and all royalties and franchises within that jurisdiction belong to the State subject to all estates and interests therein for the time being lawfully vested in any person or body.
Read that again..
Now ask yourself what Royal Dutch Shell are doing with the exploration license for Irish coastal waters that covers an area ten times the size of Ireland. Well, Des O’Malley obviously never read the Constitution because, in 1967, he sold Irelands oil and gas rights in shallow waters to Texas based Marathon Oil (who now have an 18.5% stake in the Corrib Gas project).
In 1975, a 50% tax levy and a right which gave the state an automatic 50% shareholding in any commercially successfull find was agreed. So, should any oil or gas show up in Irish waters, the state, as a representation of the people, were guaranteed half of the commercial value and royalties of 6 - 7%.
But there had only been one commercialy viable field off the coast of Ireland so far…
Meanwhile, a company in Britain was formed in 1983 to exploit the North Sea oil production assets of the then state owned British Gas. Dennis Thatcher was the man behind Enterprise Oil UK, husband of Margaret. But what in the name of Sands, was Maggie Thatchers Husband doing greasing Ray Burke up in an attempt to change the oil and gas agreement in Ireland? And in the period 1983-87.
Burke obliged and abandoned the 50% stake the Government was guaranteed in any successful find. He also abolished the payment of any royalties. That meant that should any minerals or energy sources be found in Irish territory, the state, i.e the people, relinquished their rights of ownership to those minerals. If you find oil in your back garden, you don’t have any rights to it. The fatsheep suspects there was forknowledge of all the gas fields around Ireland. In any case, the Corrib Gas Field was "discovered" in 1996.
It was discovered by none other than Enterprise Oil. Frank Fahey, as minister for Marine and Natural Resources, gave Enterprise the petroleum leases coveted by the company. Fahey, in 2001, then sold the 450 acre site at Bellanaboy to Enterprise. The land had been state owned and the fee has never been disclosed…
By April 2002 Enterprise had been taken over by Royal Dutch Shell. They acquired the site at Bellanaboy, the petroleum licenses to the Corrib Gas Project and exploration rights to the Atlantic Margin which covered an area from Kerry to Norway.
The debate over this whole debacle has nothing to do with the environment. It has little to do with police brutality or the presence of "dissident republicans" at protests. Among other futile discussions is the view that the locals of these areas are inherently opposed to progress and would rather be living in candle lit thatched cottages.
These are all nonsense arguements. Designed they are, to throw people off the scale of absolute corruption in the Irish state based on the evidence above. Don’t let Paul Williams polarise you into his "two sides of the story".
This is a story of politicians selling our resources to foreign corporations, for undisclosed fees (i.e brown envelopes), who have hired mercenaries and deathsquads to kill those who stood in their way in Nigeria.
Shell will pay $15.5m to settle Nigerian Human rights lawsuit:
