The Algarve Platform Free of Oil (PALP) has filed a petition with over 7,000 names asking parliament to stop oil and gas exploration and drilling in the sea off the Algarve coastline.
Manuel Vieira of PALP said that the organisation’s petition was a major goal, “At the beginning we had some difficulty in making people reflect on this issue and understand the negative consequences that this project may have for the region, but this is changing."
At the same time, pressure group ASMAA is continuing its wide-ranging Oilgarve campaign to put pressure on the EC to investigate the highly controversial exploration and extraction contracts which sees the public purse receive oil commissions of as low as 10 cents a barrel, compared to industry norms of USD10-20 per barrel, or gas equivalent.
Additionaly, and as a result of onshore contracts released by ENMC on their website in July 2015 - with clear indications that shale oil and gas hydraulic fracturing is indeed part and parcel of the licence agreements, ASMAA has launched in November - FrackOff - an anti-fracking campaign.
The oil concessions sold off by the government covers not only much of Portugal’s off-shore areas but the Algarve land mass itself, with the Nature Reserve Sapal de Castro Marim and Vila Real de Santo António, the Natural Park of Ria Formosa and the Natural Park of Southwest Alentejo and Costa Vicentina all affected.
The PALP petition "calls for urgent consideration of hydrocarbon exploration in the Algarve" and "requires urgent intervention not to allow the exploration and exploitation of oil and gas in this region." "This political and economic decision is extremely serious if we consider that the citizens of the Algarve were neither informed nor consulted in this process, which will affect the lives of everyone and everything," warned PALP, criticising the lack of public debate.
ASMAA’s ‘Say No to Oil and Gas in the Algarve Campaign’ aims to stop any offshore oil and gas exploration in the Algarve and Alentejo Basins, so as to safeguard the livelihoods of the people of the Algarve and the Alentejo,as well as local ecosystems. And the Frack-off campaign aims to stop fracking taking place in all the Portuguese concession areas across Portugal main land.
At the end of October this year, ASMAA terminated its collaboration with PALP as a result of PALP’s actions regarding the misappropriation and unauthorised use of ASMAA’s 'Oilgarve' anti-oil campaign name and other related copyrighted material by an organisation that was not a PALP member, but which was nonetheless endorsed by PALP's executive team members.
This is no enduring problem as the two anti-oil campaigns run in parallel with Portugal’s parliament soon to debate the oil and gas question and the EC looking at the over-generous terms signed with the oil and gas companies involved.
In addition ASMAA has brought in another petition aimed at the youth of Portugal, and they will be launching a new petition about the fracking risks to individuals, communities and the environment coupled with the lack of public consultation having taken place denoting total disregard for the EC's guidelines currently being implemented in Portugal.
With the oil price at a current low point, the oil companies have delayed drilling their off-shore exploration wells but can start at any time they wish.
As for the onshore drilling and threat of fracking in the Algarve, which seriously will affect water quality, the concession holder has yet to announce where and when exploratory work will commence.
If the oil price was high, the oil companies would in all probability already have erected rigs onshore and off-shore and, if reserves were to be found then, this would mean that it would be too late to reverse the contracts that sees the Portuguese treasury hugely disadvantaged over the life of the contracts. But as the process is delayed, that has given activists a well deserved break to challenge the status quo.
Talk of oil money flooding into the Algarve is nothing but a pipe dream; there will be little money raised even for Lisbon if oil or gas is found and extracted. Nonetheless, the Algarve will end up with the risks associated with this industry, risks that for a region dependent on tourism are too high for many to imagine or accept.
PALP
http://www.palp.pt/index.php/en/
ASMAA
