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President Rebelo de Sousa - 'Government is re-thinking Portugal's oil exploration programme'

OilReferendumSMALLThe government is said to be re-assessing its pro-oil commitment and is due to make an announcement later this year.

The President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, spoke to reporters after a speech at the Gulbenkian Foundation which criticised the government for allowing oil and gas exploration to go ahead, against a structural shift in the energy market to renewables, and the nation’s CO2 reduction agreements.

The acceptance speech by choreographer, Rui Horta, who had been awarded the Gulbenkian Knowledge Prize, (Prémio Gulbenkian Conhecimento), served to highlight the population’s view on oil exploration in front of the ‘great and the good,’ including the President of the Republic.

Horta today took full advantage of his allotted time to accept his prize by calling for a national debate to reflect people’s views to ban the exploration of hydrocarbons in the Algarve.

"I hope that there will be an institutional reflection in our Government and, Mr President, in the Nation. What inspires the Gulbenkian Foundation, inspired by the Spaniards, who last week decided to close all oil explorations, inspire us," said Rui Horta, the director of the Montemo-o-Novo Cultural Association, ‘O Espaço do Tempo.’

Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, applauded Rui Horta's acceptance speech but would not comment on oil exploration in the Algarve, but later announced to reporters that the Government, "is re-thinking this matter."

"As the Government re-weighing the matter and is going to make a decision later this year, I did not want to anticipate the executive. I did not want to be accused of placing the government under pressure on a matter where it is quite advanced in its thinking," the President told reporters after the ceremony.

In a hugely applauded speech at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon, Rui Horta said that "in September everything indicates that there will be oil exploration, the first drilling in the ocean floor, in front of the extraordinary site that is Aljezur."

"We can not be satisfied," said the director of ‘O Espaço do Tempo.’

Rui Horta introduced the theme and referred directly to Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, "Our President, a person of whom I am very proud, who has been an excellent President, who is rarely mistaken, is about to deceive himself as two years ago he told us that it would be easier to go to the moon than find oil in the Algarve."

The Gulbenkian Knowledge Prize was awarded to Rui Horta for his work in the multidisciplinary residence and artistic experimentation centre of Montemor-o-Novo but he now will be remembered as being the man who nudged the President into divulging the government’s possible election-winning strategy, one where all oil and gas exploration and drilling in Portugal will be scrapped and where Portugal will become a renewable energy centre of research and production.

The first drilling is due to start in September with Galp-ENI sinking a test well off Aljezur, assuming Loulé court allows this to go ahead.

This is a tense period in the oil exploration programme, one in which the government variously has used lies, delays, the court system, its tame media partners and corporate PR departments to push a pro-oil agenda that, the antis claim amid much public support, is against the public interest.

Without active anti-oil and media sectors laying bare the government’s machinations and deceptions, the public would have been blissfully unaware of what is going on its name, until the first oil leak hits the tourist beaches and hundreds of thousands of holidaymakers opt for cheaper options of Turkey, Tunisia and Egypt, now back on the tourism radar. A simple cost:benefit analysis would suffice to stop all drilling activity, say the anti-oil associations.

The government claims to be ‘upholding contracts legally entered in to by the State and the energy sector’ while the anti-oil associations and many MPs claim these original concession contracts were signed under highly suspicious circumstances, were never in the national interest and should be torn up, especially as Portugal has the best conditions in Europe for wind, solar and water energy and does not need any more imported oil than is imported anyway, in declining volume as renewables take over.

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Comments  

-1 #8 nogin the nog 2018-07-23 18:46
hmm
What a mess. Who knows what the toll road contracts must look like.. :-*
0 #7 Ed 2018-07-23 17:40
Quoting Peter Booker:
The argument about contracts concerning the government (in relation to the tolls, and in relation to oil exploration) is entirely specious.

Who makes the rules in Portugal? The executive can legislate in any way it pleases, and could, if it wished, outlaw contracts entered into with any entity. The State is not a commercial enterprise.


If the State outlawed the concession agreement for no better reason than it did not like it, the matter would end up in court pretty quickly and then on the the European Court if Portugal's Supreme Court found in the State's favour. If the contract was signed under suspicious cirumstances and illegalities were found, fair play - tear it up.
-1 #6 AL 2018-07-23 17:31
Quoting Peter Booker:
The State is not a commercial enterprise.
You mean to say that the state should not be a commercial enterprise.
Unfortunately our so called democracy is sold to the highest bidder. Who makes the rules in Portugal? Whoever can afford lobbying government ministers and can promise them cushy jobs after their term is ended.
+1 #5 Elsa 2018-07-23 10:47
Before Rebelo launched his Presidential campaign for real many of us noticed he made several dummy runs. As though getting feelers from the Portuguese establishment, not only would they back him but also hold back any other serious challenger. In return, he will have agreed to support or at least not to obstruct certain results. Either by dissing them out right or referring initiatives back for further debate. Perhaps, in the absence nowadays of their own monarchy - is this why so much about the British Royalty gets a mention here in Portugal?
Reina Lisebet says nothing but filho Carlos has been encouraging various initiatives, perhaps also hers, over the years - like animal friendly, organic food production; sustainable building; good design; universal religions etc but to say all these useful things in the UK Parliament starting with the line that "I speak on behalf of the Royal Family " would, after the UK's own 1650's Revolution, get howled down. Funny old world.
+2 #4 Peter Booker 2018-07-23 09:24
The argument about contracts concerning the government (in relation to the tolls, and in relation to oil exploration) is entirely specious.

Who makes the rules in Portugal? The executive can legislate in any way it pleases, and could, if it wished, outlaw contracts entered into with any entity. The State is not a commercial enterprise.
0 #3 liveaboard 2018-07-23 08:52
I think you have a little typo here ed;
"contracts legally entered in to by the State and the energy sector"

Shouldn't that read "illegally" ?
-1 #2 Mr Oily 2018-07-22 19:15
SQUAD,,,, wait for it,,,,
ABOUT TURN....

Just replace SQUAD with any word you like,,,

,,,, wait for it,,,,
+2 #1 Steve.O 2018-07-22 15:30
Hugely ironic that right winger President Rebelo gets bounced into mumbling about this Government now intending a re-think. The tenacious grip this Government, and previous right winger politicals from Passos Coelho's time, have on oil and gas exploration and exploitation suggests that the re-think, if ever made public at all, will be dressed up like Japan dresses up killing whales for food. Oil and Gas exploitation now called scientific research. (Just how much can we extract in a highly unstable earthquake zone before we get rumbled?)

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