The chief executive of Bord Gáis Éireann does not believe that there will be another substantial natural gas find off the Republic's coast.
Mr Gerry Walsh told the Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Marine and Natural Resources yesterday that the results from recent offshore explorations were not encouraging.
"Offshore Ireland has not been that fruitful," he said. Mr Walsh added that the returns from exploratory drilling had been poor.
He said that the only new offshore gas resource set to come on stream in the medium term was the Corrib field, which is currently being developed.
"That will deliver significant amounts of gas for a number of years that will be of the order of 30 per cent of peak daytime use," he told the committee.
Pressed by Green Party TD Mr Eamon Ryan on what he believed to be the percentage chance of another substantial find, Mr Walsh said he was unwilling to make any firm predictions, but made it clear that he believed the chances to be slim.
"I really would not like to put a figure on the chances of further finds," he said. "But if the past is any predictor of the future, then it looks poor."
A number of committee members asked Mr Walsh to explain the rate of household gas price increases since 2001. He explained that the company was supplying large quantities of its needs from the UK.
"In relation to wholesale prices in the UK, there certainly was a supply-demand squeeze, with the result that wholesale prices did increase," he said.
However, his colleague, Mr Will Roche, told the committee that a number of developments in the UK would mean that that market could be oversupplied in the medium term.
Senator Marc MacSharry and Cecilia Keaveney, both of Fianna Fáil, criticised the company for not extending its network to the northwest.
Mr Walsh told them that the Commission for Energy Regulation (CER) was carrying out a feasibility study looking into extending a link to Letterkenny, Co Donegal.
The Bord Gáis chief executive did not rule out the company getting involved in electricity generation in the future.
It has plans to begin supplying electricity. Mr Walsh said that if it got sufficient business, then it would consider getting or developing a power plant.
The State company and Scottish and Southern Power plc unsuccessfully bid to build a plant in a CER competition run in 2003.
