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The Kinsale Head gas field is an offshore natural gas field off the southern coast of Ireland discovered in 1973 near Old Head of Kinsale, in the Celtic Sea and met Ireland's gas need until 1996. The gas field is located in a water depth of 100 metres and 1,000 metres below the seabed.
History
Marathon Oil's Irish subsidiary Marathon Petroleum Ireland Ltd., started exploring for oil off the south coast of Ireland and in 1971 instead of finding oil, gas was found off the Old Head of Kinsale by the drill ship Glomar North Sea The discovery was confirmed as being commercially viable. Bord Gáis Éireann was established in 1975 and confirmed by the Oireachtas in 1976 under The Gas Act (1976) as the supplier and distributor of gas in Ireland. Gas came on stream in 1978.
Peak production occurred in 1995.
Currently, the gas field is explored as a potential place for the purpose of carbon dioxide capture and storage.
A number of small fields now feed the Kinsale Head platforms including Ballycotton ( discovered 1991), Southwest Kinsale (1999) and Seven Heads (2003). Southwest Kinsale is now used for gas storage, primarily for the winter months.
PETRONAS acquired Marathon's Irish operation in 2009. The nearby discovery at Barryroe is controlled by Providence.
