CORRIB FIELD HAS MORE GAS THAN EXPECTED - The results of an offshore sub-sea survey show that there is more gas in the Corrib gas field than originally estimated, says the Irish Examiner. Commercial gas is set to flow from the field off the Co Mayo coast in the middle of next year after a series of delays. The partners in the project - Shell, Statoil and Vermilion - are expected to spend an additional €300m on the project this year to bring the total spend to €3.4bn by the end of this year. Now, new accounts filed by one of the partners project - Canadian-based firm, Vermilion Energy Ireland Ltd - show that the volume of gas at peak production will be 8% more than originally believed. The directors’ report reveals that successful sub-sea operations off the coast of Co Mayo were conducted during the third quarter of 2013 and as a result, Vermilion stated that it is increasing its peak production estimate at Corrib from 9,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day to 9,700 barrels net to Vermilion. Vermilion has an 18.5% share in the field and it states that the gas field is expected to constitute 95% of Ireland’s natural gas production and 60%-65% of Ireland’s domestic gas consumption. The results of the survey are welcome news for the partners in the project who have encountered a succession of delays and consequent budget over-runs.
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O’FLYNN AND KILDARE DEVELOPMENT WILL ALLOW ABTRAN TO EMPLOY 1,000 - Cork developer Michael O’Flynn and Kildare Partners, which is backed by billionaire Ellis Short, have completed the refurbishment of a high-spec office in Cork that will allow Abtran, the business process outsourcing firm, to increase its headcount to 1,000 people. Abtran is already one of Cork’s biggest employers, with more than 400 staff, but it had struggled to find a suitable office to house its employees until Mr O’Flynn completed the office building which is the Mahon Industrial Estate, says the Irish Times. Abtran has taken 65,000 sq ft in the 100,000 sq ft building. Mr O’Flynn is in talks with other companies to bring additional employment to Cork by leasing them the rest of the building. In Ireland, Mr Short’s business is led by Emer Finnan, a former chief financial officer with EBS Building Society, who is understood to be supportive of the well-known Cork businessman continuing his work as a major developer. Mr O’Flynn is also understood to be working on further multimillion investments in Munster alongside Kildare Partners, which in March acquired about €100 million worth of loans from Lloyds Bank which relate to a portfolio of properties in the Cork area assembled by Mr O’Flynn. Kildare Partners' close working relationship with Mr O’Flynn is in stark contrast with the businessman’s relationship with Blackstone who bought his loans with a face value of €1.8 billion from the National Asset Management Agency last May.
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NAMA POOLING 100s OF SMALL DEBTORS' LOANS AHEAD OF SALES - The loans of hundreds of smaller Nama developers are currently being grouped together to be sold on the market in multi-borrower portfolios, the Irish Independent has learned. Under the plan the loans of dozens of unrelated debtors will be bundled together into portfolios by Nama managers and sold as combined lots. Yesterday the agency put €600m of Irish property assets including Facebook's Dublin headquarters, shopping centres, hotels and apartments on the market in five portfolios. Up to now, Nama has mainly sold very large portfolios tied to only one borrower, such as the €1.8bn Project Tower portfolio tied to developer Michael O'Flynn that was controversially taken over by US firm Blackstone. Nama's chief executive Brendan McDonagh said yesterday that builders should not fear having their loans sold to US private equity funds. There is "no harm" in seeing large volumes of international capital coming into Ireland in this way and the country should be happy to accept it, he said. Individual debtors whose loans are sold can benefit if they understand the funds, he said.
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BANKS PULL OUT OF DOZENS OF BENCHMARKS AFTER RATE-RIGGIN SCANDALS - Some of the world’s largest banks have stopped contributing to dozens of financial benchmarks to avoid further litigation risk in the wake of the Libor and foreign exchange rate rigging scandals, writes the Financial Times. Deutsche Bank, Citigroup, JPMorgan and UBS, among others, have set up task forces to scrutinise submission processes for hundreds of benchmarks in everything from commodities to interbank lending as they seek to cut their litigation and regulatory risk, several people close to the situation said. The withdrawals have already helped speed up revamps of the silver and gold fixes and reforms to some interbank lending benchmarks so that they are based on actual transactions rather than bank submissions. But investors warned the crackdown could leave less liquid markets without any benchmark at all and make it impossible to determine whether they are getting fair prices on their derivatives and good returns on their investments. “If you have fewer and fewer submissions there is the potential that some of these benchmarks will just go away,” said Klaus Paesler, head of currency in Europe at Russell Investments. “Benchmarks are important for investors because you need to measure your performance against something.”
