Loulé court today has suspended all oil and gas drilling activity off the Alentejo coast for three months.Anti-oil association, PALP, was in court today pursuing its legal case to see the Galp-ENI consortium banned from drilling its first test well in the ocean 40 kilometres off Aljezur.
The suspension is a result of this court case with teh Ministry of the Sea and PALP agreeing to the move while ‘new information’ is awaited.
This ‘information’ is from the Portuguese Environmental Agency, which has initiated a process of "submitting an Environmental Impact Assessment for projects on a case-by-case basis.'
“After the decision by APA on whether or not there should be an Environmental Impact Assessment, we will know the way this process can go forward,” reads today's statement.
PALP recalls that according to the work plan previously published by the ENI-Galp concessionaire, the research survey off the Costa Vicentina would be carried out as early as the second quarter of 2018.
Until there is a decision by the court on PALP’s ‘providenca cautelar,’ “all work off the Costa Vicentina Coast, whether prospective or preparatory to it, is suspended,” read today’s PALP press release.
The news comes a day after a landmark meeting in Loulé with the region’s mayors, environmental associations and business groups jointly warning that the government's continuing insistence on enabling oil and gas exploration in the south of the country would be taken as “a declaration of war.” (HERE)
The Movement for an Algarve Free of Oil (MALP) was not at all happy with the agreement reached by PALP and the Ministry of the Sea.
MALP considers the three month suspension as risky and adds little to the fight against oil exploration as there is no guarantee that the Portuguese Environment Agency will decide that an Environmental Impact Assessment is needed.
The emphasis should be on a total ban, environment assessment or not.
Not related to the court issue, MALP considers also that the Secretary of State of Energy, Jorge Seguro Sanches, is no longer in a position to keep his job and that he must resign as he lied to the public over extending the Galp-ENI licence.
The association also wants to know if the Algarve mayors’ injunction is still in play and why the government stays silent when faced with a roar of disapproval from the Algarve over its endorsement of turning the region into an oil production zone.
