Aljezur mayor Sr José Amarelinho today members of the No Oil in Algarve pressure group to discuss the activities of local concession holder Portfuel.
The meeting with the mayor went well as he was enthusiastic and sympathetic to the group’s cause, receiving a 3x3 metre red anti-fracking cross and promising to place it on the facade of the Camara building on the 29th of April (see picture below).
The mayor spoke about the process he is engaged in with the GNR’s ecological team due to borehole drilling activity in the area which ostensibly is to find water but is being carried out under contract to mysterious property company Domus Verde Imobiliarios Empreendimentos which has contracted Fonseca Furos to do the work.
The mayor is to address the public in the "espaço multiuso" in Aljezur at 3pm, 10th of April to help mobilise the local population and make them aware of the threat that the potential use of fracking techniques for gas extraction would pose to the rural council area.
Emphasising the damage such activity would pose to agriculture and tourism the mayor said he would be collecting signatures in support of a ban.
Amarelinho, as one of the members of the Algarve mayors group AMAL, already has put his name to legal action to ban onshore oil and gas exploration in the Algarve.
The mayors spoke to the government, re-emphasising their objections to oil and gas exploration licensing and were not impressed with the negative response to their legitimate concerns.
AMAL announced that "subsequent to the dialogue" with the government, it will refer the whole matter to the courts and will take "all necessary actions to prevent the development of onshore hydrocarbon exploration.”
AMAL president Jorge Botelho said that there had been a meeting on January 25th with the Secretary of State for Energy, Jorge Seguro Sanches, at which AMAL made it clear that it totally rejected oil exploration in the Algarve region which had been promoted by the coalition government and is being pursued by the present socialist administration.
Sanches promised to respond to the mayors’ concerns but failed to do so, leaving court as the next step in this battle that already has seen Portfuel send a letter of complaint to the Vila do Bispo mayor outlining the safety of its work and the misinformation being put about by the media and local anti-oil and gas action groups.
The Aljezur mayor’s wholehearted endorsement of his residents’ concerns today showed the local fight continues on democratic lines with the government accused of issuing exploration licenses without taking into account the views of local people and the possible damaging effects on local businesses related to tourism.
Comments
The Rogil site has a drilling license for water only. Max drilling depth allowed is 500 metres. The license is held by property company Domus Verde Imobiliarios Empreendimentos (NIF 504400770) and the work is contracted to Fonseca Furos which lists as a major client the Mohave Oil and Gas company. Local water is found at a maximum 120 metres. Locals say that Sousa Cintra wants to plant sweet pototoes and needs water for 6.5h of land - land that seems unsuited to potato production.
It seems strange to me that government bodies, even regional offices here in the Algarve of those government bodies, can issue licences to drill without the regional governments in the shape of the Câmaras being able to find out what permissions have been granted.