The Algarve mayors’ group AMAL is proving as good as its word and tomorrow will deliver two injunctions against the government to Loulé court.
The subject is AMAL’s spirited opposition to the State’s plans for oil and gas exploration, development and extraction both onshore and offshore in the Algarve region.
The first injunction concerns the ENI/GALP consortium’s offshore oil and gas concession and the second covers the onshore concession granted to Portfuel - Oil and Gas Portugal, Lda, owned Sousa Cintra.
AMAL, led by the mayor of Tavira, Jorge Botelho, is against the exploitation of the Algarve as a petrochemical industry zone and wants to focus on the development of regional tourism and on alternative energy development and production.
The legal detail contained in the two injunctions has benefitted from expert advice and opinion from local anti-oil associations, coordinated by the specialist lawyer, João Vidal Almeida.
Jorge Botelho said that there was a meeting with government on January 25th this year with the Secretary of State for Energy, Jorge Seguro Sanches at which AMAL made it clear that it totally rejected oil exploration in the Algarve region.
AMAL had hoped to engage government in fruitful discussions but after the elapse of the statutory 30 day response period, the government had failed to address any of AMAL’s concerns.
The government’s stance in January was that it wants to know what resources exist in the Algarve and that the contracts stand.
On July 1st a debate in parliament saw a series of cracks developing in the government’s policy with a suspension of the current contracts and a motion agreed that the oil companies involved must provide environmental impact assessments before exploratory drilling takes place, not after.
The mayors have been marginalised by government and now are hitting back with legal force while representing the views of many local voters in the Algarve.
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See also: 'Algarve mayors prepare for court battle over oil and gas exploration'
