ENERGY MINISTER DARRAGH O’Brien is expected to seek Government approval to create a State-led “strategic gas emergency reserve”.

It’s understood that the proposal could be brought to Cabinet later this morning.

In a written answer in the Dáil last week, O’Brien said this strategic gas emergency reserve would operate on a non-commercial basis and for use only in the event of an emergency.

He added that this would “provide resilience to the gas system and mitigate against the major consequences for our society and our economy that would arise from a significant gas supply disruption in Ireland”.

O’Brien said he had requested that his officials finalise their work “as a matter of priority so that I am in a position to bring forward a recommendation to the Government in the near future on the optimal approach to ensure and protect Ireland’s energy security”.

In his written answer to the Dáil last week, O’Brien said that the Energy Security in Ireland to 2030 report “concluded that Ireland does not have adequate resilience in case of a major disruption to our sub-sea gas import pipelines and does not currently meet minimum EU standards in this area”.

This report tested the resilience of Ireland’s electricity and natural gas systems to a range of future demand and supply shocks.

The report stated that the strategic gas emergency reserve would be needed on a “transitional basis to address security needs in the medium-term” and that it would be a “potential back-up for renewable energy”.

O’Brien further remarked that the report recommended that the state-led Strategic Gas Emergency Reserve take the “form of a Floating Storage and Regassification Unit (FSRU)”.

FSRUs are ships that can store and convert liquefied natural gas (LNG) into natural gas.

A government source last night said that the delivery of a temporary gas reserve is critical to Ireland’s energy security as the country transitions to clean renewable energy.

While not as heavy a polluter as oil or coal, gas is a fossil fuel that contributes to pushing global temperatures upwards. 

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The source added that the emergency reserve will provide an alternative source of gas at an appropriate scale if Ireland was to experience interruption to gas supplies via subsea interconnection, and that it will only be used in the case of a disruption to gas supplies.

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