How Will Floating Storage Impact Cork Harbour Sailing?

8th August 2017

Photo shows Excelerate Teeside facility near Middlesborough in the UK when operating

The location proposed for the floating storage and regasification operation which the Texas-based LNG (liquefied natural gas) company, Next Decade, wants to put into Cork Harbour, is to the west of Whitegate Jetty and inside Dognose writes Tom MacSweeney in Cork's Evening Echo Newspaper. If it goes ahead, this will be a major change in the appearance of the harbour and have considerable implications for boating in the popular area known as the ‘Fox and Cover’.

Dognose is the area around the green No,5 harbour buoy where the ‘Corkbeg’ racing mark is located, longstanding and renowned amongst the sailing fraternity. The area, underneath Fort Carlisle, is a popular weekend leisure anchorage that has been used by generations of Corkonians.

The project underlines the commercial pressure for industrial development in the harbour, the current list of which includes the expansion of Cork Port at Ringaskiddy, the controversial Indaver incinerator there, about which Bord Pleanala has said it will announce its decision next week and this LNG/FSRU proposal.

Floating storage and regasification’ projects (FSRU) use ships to store and transfer liquefied gas, an operation requiring great care. NextDecade was founded by Kathleen Eisbrenner, an Executive Vice President of LNG at Shell, CEO and also founder of Excelerate Energy, which built FSRU vessels and developed ‘Re-Gas ports’. Excelerate opened Teeside Gasport near Middleborough in the UK in 2007, but it was underused, closed in 2015. Re-opening has been announced by another company, Trafigura. Ireland’s gas supply has come under scrutiny over Brexit and issues about security of supply.

Published in Cork Harbour

Tagged under

Cork Harbour

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