Shell E&P Ireland will make a bid in the High Court today to drop its legal action against landowners objecting to the Corrib gas pipeline.
If successful, the company will not have to produce the State's petroleum lease granted by the Minister for the Marine for the Corrib gas project.
The company will also avoid having to produce the plan of development for the €900 million project, which it has argued to be commercially sensitive.
Production of the documents was requested by Ms Justice Mary Laffoy on July 31st in a judgment dealing with the legal action.
The question of whether planning permission was necessary for the onshore pipeline is an issue in the proceedings, she said.
However, Shell has indicated that it is not giving objecting parties the documentation and has informed them that it is seeking to discontinue the case, according to Pádraic Ferry, solicitor for several of the objecting parties.
Three days after Ms Justice Laffoy's documentation request, the company signalled its intention to withdraw from its legal action. The company explained yesterday that this was because it had decided to modify the pipeline route on the recommendation of Government mediator Peter Cassells.
The modification decision rendered ongoing legal proceedings against "a small number of people redundant, as these proceedings relate to specific areas of land along the previous route", the company said.
The company was continuing discussions with the relevant legal teams, it said yesterday. It would update the court today on recent developments and would state its intention to withdraw from legal proceedings, it said.
