Loulé court’s decision to ban the drilling project put forward by Galp-ENI has been overturned in the southern administrative court.
The muddle continues over the oil drilling programme as this latest court decision means the oil concession holder can go ahead and drill off Aljezur but, despite failing publicly to confirm its intentions, maintains that it has given up the struggle to assert its rights and no longer has any interest in finding oil or gas off the Portuguese coast.
The government has been helping the oil companies with their court actions in defence of environmental injunctions, the State using taxpayers’ money to ram home concession holders’ rights to explore for hydrocarbon deposits.
The prime minister has stated that there will be no new concessions granted during the life of the current government, with the implication that it will be another concession licence free-for-all after the autumn election which the Socialists are likely to win.
The court decision that has been overturned was instigated by anti-oil association, PALP, with ASMAA still embroiled in a legal fight to see all concessions ruled as illegally granted with an injunction still in place that prevents any drilling taking place.
Nobody trusts anyone in this cat-and-mouse game, set against a backdrop of a government support for big oil. Local environmental associations are adept at the legal and court systems and are proving to be stiff opposition for companies that, hitherto, have been able to behave with impunity.
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What will happen in our own case? We don’t really know at this stage, because many different legal outcomes are possible that can be for our benefit or for Gov/Galp/ENI benefit.
The major difference in our cases, is that PALP targeted the TUPEM only, while ASMAA targeted the underpinning law, the contracts and the TUPEM. As a result we hope for a positive outcome, one that will help us to protect our coast. ASMAA’s tireless team has done everything that could be done, now its in the hand of the judge from Loulé court. We just have to be patient while we wait for the court decision on our injunction.
What this means is that the embargo that PALP had was cancelled by the appeal court on 1st February 2019. This information was confirmed in the Portuguese press today.
PART 2
Here's the CURRENT REAL SITUATION!
We were very disappointed to learn from a post made on Facebook this last Saturday by a Lisbon Law Faculty lecturer who stated the following
PART 1