It seems the Crogga consortium has finally secured funding for the all-important first exploration well to be drilled.

Only when that work is completed will we know if a viable natural gas field sits beneath Manx territorial waters.  

If the answer is yes, that is when the debate about the pros and cons of commercial extraction should be resolved.  

In the meantime, I am sure Friends of the Earth and other single-issue campaigning organisations will continue to promote their simplistic climate change emergency agenda. 

But, to represent properly the concerns of everyone on the island, three other important factors must also sit centre stage in this debate. 

First, we need to acknowledge that under the United Nations carbon accounting rules, responsibility for the emission from the burned gas sits with the country that uses it for heating or power production. 

Second, the extraction rent that Crogga is contractually obliged to pay the Manx nation has the potential to transform the public finances of our proud and independent island. 

Third, we are told that the end user will likely be Eire. So, the Irish Government will need to include those emissions in its Kyoto reduction commitment as the people of Ireland need the gas to heat and light their homes whilst the country moves down its path to net zero.

I would suggest better the gas came from Manx waters than the fields controlled Mr Putin’s Russia or the oppressive regimes in the middle east. 

Peter Taylor 

Port Lewaigue

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