Ireland needs to develop strategy to cut oil dependence: report

Dublin (Platts)--4Apr2006

Ireland needs a strategy spanning the energy, transport, enterprise,
environmental and other sectors to prepare for the challenge of peak oil, a
new report from the influential state-sponsored body Forfas said Tuesday.

The strategy should be incorporated into the Green Paper on Ireland's
medium to long term energy policy currently being prepared by the Department
of Natural Resources.

Ireland is more dependent on imported oil for its energy requirements
than almost any other European country, and it is expected to take up to 10
years to reduce this dependence significantly.

Since 1990 Ireland?s oil consumption has doubled, reaching 9 million mt
in 2004, all of it imported. The share of oil in primary energy requirement
was almost 56% in 2004, up from 54% by 2003.

The report said other fuels should be considered as alternatives to oil
and gas for power generation, and that new coal power stations could also be
an option. The report also said Ireland should consider developing the use of
nuclear energy.

The amount of oil used for transportation in Ireland has tripled between
1972 and 2002 and the report emphasizes that, while there are some short term
measures that can be taken to reduce oil use in transportation, in the longer
term there are only two options--replace the current stock of vehicles with
more fuel-efficient vehicles or provide alternative modes of transport that
run on electricity rather than petroleum-related fuels.

Neither option is likely to yield significant benefits in the form of
reduced oil demand for transportation in less than five years, it said.

Forfas is the national body responsible for providing policy advice to
the government on enterprise, trade, science, technology and innovation.

For more information, take a trial to Platts Oilgram News at
http://oilgramnews.platts.com.


 

Copyright © 2005 - Platts

Please visit:  www.platts.com

Their coverage of energy matters is extensive!!.