ZERO - Portugal’s Sustainable Terrestrial System Association, has asked Secretary of State for Energy, how much it now will cost to cancel the Galp-ENI drilling contract.
The letter points out that the recently awarded TUPEM licence for drilling, will see the consortium spending anything upto €60 million on its test well, money it inevitably will want back if its licence is anulled.
Had the government taken the opportunity to cancel the existing exploration and extraction contract before signing the drilling licence on January 11th, the cost of doing so would have been significantly lower.
This, says ZERO, is an opportunity missed and deliberately drops taxpayers into a poor position, enabling the government now to claim that to cancel the licence would be prohibitively expensive.
ZERO has joined other environmental organisations, tourism bodies and the Algarve’s regional mayors in condemning the whole oil and gas exploration project and the dismissal by the government of an anti-oil public petition with over 42,000 signatories.
The public consultation period for the Galp-ENI plan to drill in the Alentejo basin, threw up various legal arguments that could easily have led to the cancellation of the oil exploration contracts - the government has ignored these also.
Pointing out that the government has signed the international CO2 reduction agreement and highlighting an untenable position, ZERO says the Government has missed a trick - to the taxpayers’ disbenefit.
With an offshore test well costing approximately €60 million over two months of operation, it is possible that in court, an award in the consortium’s favour now could be substantial.
As for the Galp-ENI test well some 45 kilometres from the Costa Vicentina, there are risks that have been glossed over by the consortium, claim ZERO.
The environmental report that was submitted shows no environmental monitoring; there's no environmental management plan for the mobilisation and positioning, drilling and demobilisation phases.
Also, there is no risk modeling in the event of a small or large oil spill; the sea-bed area to be affected by drilling waste is not presented in detail and there is no detailed contingency plan, not one that has been made known to the public, anyway.
With ZERO joining the uproar caused by the government covertly signing a drilling licence with Galp-ENI, the public are left wondering as to the real reasons for the government careering down the oil and gas route while purporting to encourage green measures and sustainable energy objectives.
