Oil explorers downbeat on Irish prospects

* Industry interest in Irish offshore area waning

* Limited commercial results so far

DUBLIN, June 26 (Reuters) - Interest in exploring oil and gas off the shores of Ireland is waning because tax incentives do not outweigh the slim chance of making any viable discoveries, an industry body said on Friday.

A study commissioned by the Irish government earlier said there were potential reserves of 10 billion barrels of oil off Ireland's Atlantic coast.

Low tax on exploration companies compared with the United Kingdom and Norway lured prospectors such as U.S. major Exxon Mobil (XOM.N) and Norway's StatoilHydro (STL.OL), with an added boost last year from high energy prices. [ID:nLK668555]

Companies have so far been mostly disappointed by the results, however, said the Irish Offshore Operators' Association (IOOA), whose members include Exxon Mobil, Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) and Irish company Providence Resources (PRR.I).

"Undoubtedly, industry interest in the Irish offshore area has waned," IOOA Chairman Fergus Cahill wrote in an opinion piece in the Irish Times newspaper.

The odds of making a commercial discovery were about 25 to 1, compared with 5 to 1 in Norway, Cahill said, in response to an article which quoted estimates of 50 billion euros ($70 billion) worth of offshore oil and gas reserves.

"The fact is that offshore Ireland is a high-risk, high-cost area," he said. "The industry has expended over 2 billion euros in today's money, drilling 155 exploration and appraisal wells over the last 35 years, with quite limited commercial results."

Cahill said there were also hopeful moves, such as the success of Serica Energy Plc (SQZ.L) (SQZ.V) which together with German partner RWE Dea (RWEG.DE) unveiled the first discovery of oil off the west coast for almost 30 years this month.

Shell was facing renewed protest on Friday against its Corrib gas field off the north-west coast, where local people oppose plans for onshore processing they say would be too close to their homes and pollute their water supply.

State media said 300 additional police had been deployed ahead of expected protests as the Solitaire, the world's largest pipe-laying ship, arrived in the northwestern county of Mayo to begin work on the project. [ID:nLN968805] [ID:nL6501711] (Reporting by Andras Gergely; editing by James Jukwey)