In a report that has baffled observers and activists in Portugal’s various anti-oil associations and action groups, the National Entity for the Fuel Market (ENMC) has issued a report stating that despite decades of oil exploration, the companies involved all have drawn a blank.The stab at the cost to date is “around €1 billion” according to the pro-oil ENMC which has acted more like an adjunct to those oil companies involved in the concession licences than a taxpayer funded advisory service.
The intriguing report states that despite 175 test wells being drilled over the years, not a drop of oil has been found in Portuguese territory.
The Galp-ENI consortium are the biggest investors to date and have every intention of drilling off Aljezur in the Spring of this year, with the connivance of the Secretary of State for Energy, Jorge Seguro Sanches, whose devious dealings have been pro-oil and anti-democratic from the start.
The ENMC estimates that the €1 billion, at current prices, has been spent in the past eight decades “on collecting geological samples from the subsoil,” but does not reveal why we need to know this fascinating statistic.
The report continues in the same vein, “to date, no oil discovery with economic viability has been made, so it is excessive to talk about oil exploration and production in Portugal, adding that the investment is directed only to the collection of data and geophysical information that makes it possible to perceive whether or not there is oil on the Portuguese coast. These oil activities have been going on for several decades, without any viable discovery being made.
Galp-ENI and Sanches are sneaky, as is the ENMC even after its last president, the pro-oil Paulo Carmona, was sent packing in November 2016.
This latest off-beat publicity stunt from the ENMC fails to mention gas reserves, there is a huge gas field to the south of Faro, and comes at a time when the anti-oil chorus is reaching a well-tuned crescendo to a backdrop of the renewable energy being the next big and exciting market.
The ENMC does not issue information for no reason, the last Press Release listed on its website is dated December 30, 2016, so the question is, what will follow?
The vastly influential Gulbenkian Foundation announced last week that it is selling off its oil interests, following the lead set by other similar foundations, Portugal has international carbon reduction targets to meet and is recognised at the best location in Europe for renewable energy production, the government's oil royalty deal will make no one rich - apart perhaps from those that signed then - and the coastal public is resolutely anti-oil.
Has the State and its organs realised they are on a losing political bet, or is the ENMC press report a precursor to a further announcement on more soft deals for the poor old oil companies, "as they have spent so much already."
