News

Traditional Gas Extraction

Sandstone All the natural gas accumulations in the Irish Sea are held within sandstone reservoir rocks. Sandstone reservoirs are known as “conventional” reservoirs and have been the mainstay of worldwide oil and gas since the inception of the hydrocarbons industry. A conventional reservoir, such as…READ MORE

Geology of the Irish Sea

The Irish Sea has a long and varied geological history from the earliest Carboniferous (330 million years’ ago (mya)) up to the recent ice age (1 mya). With respect to the formation and accumulation of natural gas in the East Irish Sea the main geological…READ MORE

Gas production in the Irish Sea

Done Before … for Many Years Exploration, appraisal and production of natural gas in the Irish Sea has followed a very conventional route that has been developed in the UK since the early 1980s. That route begins with an analysis and understanding of the regional…READ MORE

The role of Natural Gas

Natural gas is an integral part of the Island’s energy mix and will play an important part of the transition to renewable energy.    The Island’s power station at Pulrose has a working life until at least 2030’s and is reliant on natural gas. The Isle…READ MORE

Renewable energy sources

Renewable technology is developing fast but still has a number of challenges and issues preventing more rapid and widespread adoption. Intermittency is an obvious problem where the energy source is not continuously available. Sun, wave, wind will all suffer periods of low or no production…READ MORE

Cost of transition to zero carbon (Case Study)

When evaluating costs for the transition to net zero carbon there are a number of local and international case studies.  In August 2019, Chief Minister Howard Quayle quoted the potential cost to the Island of retrofitting the current housing stock and new electric vehicle infrastructure…READ MORE