Environmental organisation ZERO said today that the government now has all the reasons it needs to call a halt to the oil and gas exploration contracts on Portugal’s land and in her offshore oil exploration areas.
After the postponement of drilling announced by the Galp-ENI consortium at the end of July, ZERO, the Sustainable Land Association, welcomed today’s announcement that the Repsol-Partex consortium also has postponed its drilling plans for the oil exploration block about 40 km to the south of Tavira/Faro.
ZERO says that given these two significant delays by these two major consortia and the doubts that exist over the procedures followed in granting the license to Portfuel for onshore drilling, the Government should use this opportunity to create an economy based on renewable energy and low CO2 emissions and halt all the oil exploration and extraction contracts that are in place.
Parliament already has commented on these contacts and requested "the immediate suspension of the contracts process for the exploration and extraction of oil and gas in the Algarve," - this was recorded in parliamentary resolution number 144/2016.
ZERO sent a complaint to the European Commission in late July against the Portuguese State for the incorrect transposition of European legislation on safety that is associated with research, exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbons, in particular noting that several of the contracts in force are almost ten years old and that there is no retroactive application of current safety requirements.
in today's statement, Zero suggests that the government should move from postponement to a definitive cancellation of the contracts and thereby follow the recommendation of the National Assembly.
For the full Zero text in Portuguese, see: http://zero.ong/comunicacao/
