The annual row between Russia and the Ukraine only serves to remind us that as the country at the end of the European gas grid, we are in an extremely vulnerable position when it comes to security of supply.

If Serbian gas stops flowing to Europe from the Ukraine, it would mean the loss of 25pc of European gas supplies, but quite possibly the loss of our entire feedstock.

It is this type of scenario which makes the development of a national strategic gas reserve a critical issue. Even as steps are taken to diversify sources of gas for the European market, we cannot rely on the benevolence of other nations, whether our EU partners or not, to come to our rescue in the event of an interruption in European gas supplies.

While the debate over the future direction of our energy policy rages on, one thing is certain: whatever the nature of the power source, EU policy, as well as common sense, dictate that we need to be able to guarantee energy supplies in the event of some major disruption.

As far as security of energy supply is concerned, a variety of options present themselves, all of them based on fossil fuel technology. But it is gas, deemed to be the cleanest and most efficient source of feedstock for power generation, which will in future years serve as the nation's strategic energy reserve.

There are plenty of good reasons for this. Apart from the existence of an extensive and still growing national gas grid, the fuel is cleaner and more efficient than either coal, the feedstock at Moneypoint, or oil, which up until the 1970s was the dominant power source throughout the country.

The EU directive on security of supply dictates that the country develop a strategic reserve to ensure supplies in the event of some unforeseen disruption, for instance to the gas interconnector with Britain.

This is a sensible directive. But consultants CSA, writing in a recent report on the future of the Irish gas industry, made the point that given the unique circumstances of the island of Ireland, circumstances dictated by our dependence on gas for electricity generation and the lack of diversified gas supply sources, measures that both incorporate and go beyond the EU directive are required.

Measures

CSA says these measures should be designed to ensure a certain minimum security of supply based on diversification and storage.

The measures would cover both the domestic gas market and the power generation sector and could be met by a variety of mechanisms, including new indigenous gas sources, pipeline inventory known as line pack, storage in depleted gas fields, salt caverns and LNG (liquid natural gas) tanks and demand-side management, including the use of alternative fuels for power generation.

The consultants also make a crucial point when they say that any proposed solution should not deter private sector involvement in the solution, a key recommendation in a country whose energy industry is tightly controlled by a few state owned companies -- Eirgrid, the ESB and Bord Gais.

CSA said it is important to ensure that any measure that is proposed by policy makers to enhance the security of supply on the island of Ireland should not distort the market in such a way that it prevents the private sector providing solutions on a commercial basis.

In an ideal world, the private sector would make the necessary investments to ensure a diversity of supply sources, including commercial storage of gas.

To offer us security of supply, gas has to be stored in considerable volume and for Ireland this has long been a problem. Several solutions have been mooted over the years, but plans to build storage caverns in Dublin Bay never got off the ground and it is only in the past year that a viable plan to build a liquefied natural gas facility on the banks of the Shannon have been advanced to the planning phase.

There have been other attempts, including the small storage facility in the Celtic Sea developed by Marathon.

However, rather than a strategic reserve, this facility was designed to supply gas during peak periods of demand -- the gas being pumped in during off-peak periods.

Island Oil and Gas chief Paul Griffiths has also announced his company's intention to develop a gas storage facility in the Celtic Sea.

Last year, after it had completed a successful drilling programme on the Schull, Old Head and West Seven Heads gas fields, the company launched a study to determine the optimum development scenario for the three fields.

Griffiths says this will include the potential for using at least one of the gas fields as a gas storage facility to allow for an increase in winter gas production at a time when gas prices are traditionally higher.

He also said that the consultants Pegasus would be looking at the potential to use one of its three gas fields, possibly the West Seven Heads field, as a gas storage facility or as a potential, short-term, national strategic gas reserve.

The gas fields which were successfully appraised last year, he says "have further enhanced Island's negotiating power in relation to this issue.

"There is potentially significant strategic commercial value to be realised for Island in adding its assets to any strategic plan to secure access to a national gas reserve."

The Island chief added that his company "is the only indigenous Irish company producing gas and owning infrastructure offshore Ireland and as such is well-placed to play a strategic role in the current geopolitical debate in Ireland centring on the requirement for a strategic national gas reserve."

The picture is complicated slightly by the decision of Marathon to reassess its involvement in the Irish gas industry -- it all but put itself up for sale when it announced a review of its business here and immediately attracted the interest of Island.

The existing Marathon infrastructure would form a key part of any strategic reserve and given Island's stated ambition of developing such a facility, it stands out as the obvious candidate to strike a deal with the American multinational.

But ahead of such a development, or the construction of the proposed LNG terminal on the Shannon, the country remains vulnerable.

As CSA explains, if a gas outage were to occur tomorrow, we would have to rely on some nimble footwork to sustain power supplies.

The ability to supply the domestic market for even a short period of time in the event of a major failure of supplies from Britain will be wholly dependent on the gas-fired power sector switching off gas supplies immediately and running on alternative fuels for the duration of the gas supply disruption, it says.

As things stand, the power industry has alternative feedstocks for at least five days.

This, however, leaves them five days short of the 10-day minimum recommended by CSA to deal with short term supply interruptions. Longer term outages, for instance those stemming from a break in the undersea gas connection, something which will take longer to fix, requires a longer term solution.

CSA believes a competitive process should be embarked on to find an industry solution, a process which it says could also throw up a new solution to the problem.

The statistics speak starkly of our vulnerability.

Not only is 90pc of our gas imported, but 65pc of our electricity is derived from gas feedstock.

It is imperative we find a solution, whatever that solution may be.

- PAT BOYLE