Algarve Oil

Major lawsuit lodged against Portugal's pro-oil Government

Laurinda Seabra - ASMAA

portugal A lawsuit has been lodged by anti-oil association, ASMAA, in a class action representing everyone that signed the petition that was dismissed by the Portuguese parliament on 21 December 2017.

This historic court case challenges the constitutionality of the law that enabled the Portuguese government to sign concession contracts with companies such as GALP and Hardman in 2007 and saw multiple amendments to oil and gas drilling concession contracts over the years, including the multiple contractual changes to the three contracts for Alentejo Basin currently held by the GALP-ENI consortium.

Tourism chief blasts oil and gas exploration

The Algarve Tourism Region has called for the public to participate in the public consultation against the exploration and exploitation of gas and oil, a process that run until April 16th.

In today's statement, the RTA "once again rejects the exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbons off Aljezur and requires that an Environmental Impact Assessment is commissioned by the Portuguese Environment Agency," which it considers essential.

Portugal's taxpayers subsidise oil companies by €200 million

Far from contributing to the national exchequer, the oil companies that have received every assistance from the government to pursue their drilling schedule in the sea off Aljezur, have been benefitting from multi-million tax breaks.

The excuse used by Jorge Seguro Sanches, controversially handing Galp-ENI an extension to its drilling licence, was that the consortium already had invested heavily in exploration, hinting that the State might be sued if it did not oblige. This now can be set against up to €270 million in tax breaks that Galp and ENI, through its Saipem subsidiary, have enjoyed in the past decade.

ASMAA reveals the truth - do you want the oil drilling to start in May, or not..?

OilReferendumSMALL DO YOU WANT TO SEE THE DRILLING TAKE PLACE IN MAY?

You Decide…

At ASMAA, we regret that once again we are forced to deal with further disinformation doing the rounds, but this time we are leaving our traditional diplomatic manner behind. We are publicly doing this in an endeavour to set the record straight once and for all. Its our belief that each and everyone of you has the right to the truth and to the real facts. Its our way to showing our respect.

MALP calls for Secretary of State's resignation after oil exploration lies

Ten days after the meeting in Loulé, where local authorities, businessmen, Algarve tourism bodies, environmental associations, groups and social movements all requested an urgent meeting with António Costa and raised a chorus of protests against the exploration and exploitation of oil in the Algarve, the Government's response is silence - writes anti-oil group, MALP.

The lack of respect shown to the main associations representing the population of the Algarve by the Socialist Government, supported by the Portuguese Communist Party, the Left Bloc and the Greens, is total, intolerable, unacceptable and against any decency in democratic life.

PALP issues clarification on 'oil drilling suspension' agreement

oilrig On the 2nd of May 2017, PALP (Platform for an Algarve free of Oil) took the initiative of filling an Injunctive Relief against the Sea Ministry and the Galp-ENI consortium. This process was suspended for 3 months, by court decision, on 23rd of February.

In practical terms, the Injunctive Relief process stops Galp-ENI from starting any work, either preparatory or prospecting, in the concession area off Aljezur.

Left Bloc - "The idea that oil is the future of energy is clearly an idea of the past"

The parliamentary leader of the Left Bloc, Pedro Filipe Soares, today challenged the government to scrap all oil and gas exploration contracts in Portugal.

"The idea that oil is the future of energy is clearly an idea of the past," said the bloquista, adding that no new exploration contracts should be signed.

ASMAA's view on PALP's agreement with oil companies

Laurinda Seabra - ASMAA

OilReferendumSMALL After a nail-biting two weeks, in which so many things have been happening at the same time in the offshore oil-drilling environment in Europe and in which ENI was playing a leading role, the unbelievable happened: PALP, on Friday, 23 February, extended GALP-ENI’s TUPEM licence to drill of the coast of Aljezur by a further three months? - writes Laurinda Seabra of ASMAA

This decision, according to PALP themselves and present in various online publications, was made in a private meeting held behind closed doors at the Loulé Administrative Court last Friday, with representatives of both the government and ENI.