Tavira island human chain in protest against oil and gas development

Paul Rees

TaviraHumanChain Thousands of protestors today lined up on Tavira island to form a human chain that stretched for an estimated three kilometres

Organised by 'anti-oil and gas' protest group Tavira em Transição, the event was covered by most of Portugal's major news channels and comes just days after the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa made light of questions about the region’s oil and gas contracts while on a visit to Loulé.

The president said last Thursday that there was as much likelihood of finding oil in the Algarve as there was of him going to the moon. This flippant retort avoided the question of gas exploration and extraction as the president knows there are substantial reserves off the Faro coast.*

Angela Rosa, the eloquent and focussed head of Tavira em Transição was interviewed on the beach by TV media today and brought the gas question to the fore by suggesting figures for those suffering from cancer were at a European high in the Huelva area where Repsol has a huge gas processing plant serving the bay of Cádiz gas fields.

Repsol, with partner Partex, has the oil and gas concession for a large exploration block to the south of Faro.

Repsol’s Max Torres, at an investors briefing in January 2014, stated that the company had discovered a major gas field off the Algarve coast with an estimated half a trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas, sufficient to address Portugal's needs for “at least 15 years.”

Angela Rosa also told reporters that the area to the south of Tavria was a sensitive area and prone to earthquakes and that gas processing has no place in the Algarve, teh Huelva public already was suffering from a high incidence of cancer, and that The Algarve should be concentrating on renewable energyand tourism.

Tavira em Transição, a deeply committed anti-oil and anti-gas pressure group, wants the government to withdraw from the oil and gas contracts as these are not ‘in the public good’ and represent an unquantifiable risk to a region, happy with and dependent on, tourism.

* See: 'Portugal's President says oil discoveries in the Algarve are 'unlikely''

http://www.algarvedailynews.com/news/9427-portugal-s-president-says-oil-discoveries-in-the-algarve-are-unlikely

For the SIC Noticias report on the Tavira event (in Portuguese) see:

http://sicnoticias.sapo.pt/pais/2016-07-24-Protesto-contra-exploracao-de-petroleo-no-Algarve

Comments

0 #7 DAVID PIMBLETT 2016-07-31 10:47

To call something hackneyed does not mean that it is not true : I am fairly green having a huge solar votaic system in my back garden for the last 6 years but solar voltaic is just a tax on poor people - electricity costs more and people who can't afford a system subsidise those that can. I just hope that all the demonstrators either walk or go by bicycle

0 #6 KayT 2016-07-31 09:08

Quoting DAVID PIMBLETT:

I hope that none of the protesters drive motor vehicles or derive benifits from the use of fossil fuels . Life without oil or natural gas would see us all back in the dark ages . Responsible consumption and production is the answer couples with supervision from elected bodies.

The same old hackneyed argument. Nobody has suggested 'life without oil or natural gas' this is not the point. The point is the opening up of new oil fields in ecologically sensitive areas with piss-poor potential revenue in compensation. Detractors argue for the development in the Algarve of a range of alternative energy technologies due to its natural endowment of sun, wind and wave power.

0 #5 DAVID PIMBLETT 2016-07-31 08:47

I hope that none of the protesters drive motor vehicles or derive benifits from the use of fossil fuels . Life without oil or natural gas would see us all back in the dark ages . Responsible consumption and production is the answer couples with supervision from elected bodies.

+2 #4 Poor Portugésa 2016-07-27 10:44

Angela Rosa is SO right about the over-riding importance of the sensitivity of the off-shore tectonic plates - as we are ALL well aware.

This signally demonstrates the criminal political and commercial disregard of the laws of nature, as well of our land.

+2 #3 Ed 2016-07-25 23:56

Quoting Christian:

Tavira em Transição is not just an 'anti oil and gas protest group', it is a citizens' movement promoting ecological agriculture, educational projects at local schools, affordable healthy food, renewable energy; one of its hands-on projects is replacing eucalyptus trees in the mata nacional in Conceição with indigenous plants. Sunday's human chain was a huge success - nobody could know in advance how the local people and tourists that had come to the Ilha to enjoy the beach and the sea would react to our invitation to build a chain, and with so many people joining the movement as well as the battle against the prospect of oil and gas exploration have been given a major boost. Some of the local politicians who claim to be at the frontline of the battle may not like it, but we will not be satisfied with a deal that sees the contracts for onshore drilling and fracking cancelled while the offshore concessions remain in place.

Thanks for the update.
Ed

+6 #2 Christian 2016-07-25 23:23

Tavira em Transição is not just an 'anti oil and gas protest group', it is a citizens' movement promoting ecological agriculture, educational projects at local schools, affordable healthy food, renewable energy; one of its hands-on projects is replacing eucalyptus trees in the mata nacional in Conceição with indigenous plants. Sunday's human chain was a huge success - nobody could know in advance how the local people and tourists that had come to the Ilha to enjoy the beach and the sea would react to our invitation to build a chain, and with so many people joining the movement as well as the battle against the prospect of oil and gas exploration have been given a major boost. Some of the local politicians who claim to be at the frontline of the battle may not like it, but we will not be satisfied with a deal that sees the contracts for onshore drilling and fracking cancelled while the offshore concessions remain in place.

+9 #1 Chip 2016-07-25 14:40

So they are prepared to ruin the Algarve, kill tourism, give cancer to the local population so that a few fatcats can get fatter.

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