Shell in the red in Ireland

I read this morning of the €50 million loss that Shell Ireland has made over the Rossport issue. The idea that Shell is hurting is laughable. Shell is a multi-Billion euro company.

One of the famous sayings on the stock market has always been "Never sell Shell!" That is because the company always makes a profit, no matter how ruthless it has to be, Shell always makes a profit.

That somehow the company might be in trouble over the Rossport protests is a joke. There is plenty more where that €50 million came from and the company can always afford to sit back and wait. That gas is not going anywhere and they have the rights to it so no-one else is a threat.

The proposal that a dangerous pipeline can be run so close to someone's home is repugnant. That Ireland's natural energy can be given away, for free, to a multi-Billion euro company like Shell, is criminal. Worse again, we are then expected to buy our own gas back of them.

What a sweet deal! The €50 million loss pales away to nothing next to that potential for profit making at the expense of us all.

Dick Spring called it as it was, when in 1992, he referred to this kind of a exploration licence as "economic treason". Even more exploration licences have been granted since by Noel Dempsey under the exact same conditions as Shell's so the "treason" continues!

Don't worry about poor ould Shell's €50 million worry about the millions that the Irish citizen has lost out on, continues to lose out on and will always lose out on as long as Bertie Ahern's government gives away our natural resources, for free, to anyone prepared to dig 'em up.