The Shannon Estuary, on the West Coast of Ireland, extending 100 kilometres from Limerick City to the sea, is a deep-water, sheltered resource adjacent to all major shipping lanes in and out of Europe. Currently, vessels up to 200,000 tonnes DWT are routinely handled, and a roadmap to extend this to 400,000 tonnes DWT has been developed.
Marine navigation is managed by Shannon Foynes Port Company (SFPC), a fully commercial organisation under State ownership. The Estuary currently hosts a number of private facilities (at Tarbert, Moneypoint and Aughinish) as well as terminals managed directly by SFPC (Limerick, Shannon, Foynes); planning consent has been awarded for the construction of a major LNG terminal at Ballylongford, Co. Kerry.
The Estuary facilities currently handle over 10 million tonnes in annual throughput, predominantly consisting of dry and liquid bulk cargoes. Expansion at existing facilities currently underway includes an 80,000 m3 fuel terminal at Foynes, the largest new build in Ireland in over 40 years; this and other projects will underpin strong organic growth in the coming years.
A number of sites are currently designated for commercial development, and the port authority is working with the relevant planning bodies to position further locations for future development.
