In a move that has anti-oil activists reaching for the bubbly, the Galp-ENI oil consortium has stated that it is unable to start drilling for oil off Aljezur this year.
The letter sent to the ENMC* says that "a delay is inevitable," and was copied to the Ministry of the Sea, the DGRM** and the Directorate-General for Energy.
The government executive has approved next year’s State Budget proposal at the end of a Saturday meeting that lasted 11 hours.
The agreed document will be delivered to parliament on Monday for discussion.
Prime Minister António Costa has taken advantage of the gap created by the resignation of the Minister of Defence by having a few changes in his executive.
The current Assistant Secretary of State for Administrative Modernisation, Graça Fonseca, will serve as Minister of Culture, replacing Luís Filipe Castro Mendes.
The iconic Fábrica do Inglês and cork museum in Silves and the garden area within its walls, is no longer heading for ‘monument of public interest’ status.
The Directorate-General for Cultural Heritage has determined that, "the procedure to classify the buildings as a public interest monument has been terminated."
Leslie has struck Portugal with a ferocity seldom experienced. The National Civil Protection Authority confirmed on Sunday morning that "the greatest dangers have passed," but only after a night of high winds, power failures, injuries, uprooted trees, property damage and flooding.
The hurricane lost power as it made its way to the mainland yesterday evening but was classified as a sub-tropical storm system, still packing power as it barrelled into the centre and north of the country leaving widespread damage but no reported deaths.*
Portugal’s Civil Protection Authority and the IPMA weather service have warned of two storms that simultaneously could hit the Portuguese mainland late this weekend. Forecasts are that parts of Portugal will experience near hurricane-force winds and western Spain can expect tropical storm-force winds.
If Leslie, whether as a hurricane or a tropical storm, continues on its current course and fails to veer to the east as some models predict, it will hit Portugal’s central and northwest coast on Sunday and will be "the worst weather since 1842," according to national media.
The Minister of National Defence, José Azeredo Lopes, has handed in his resignation.
Lopes said he could not let the Armed Forces be eroded by continuing political attacks on the minister who supervises them.
The Bank of Portugal has joined a long list of regulators that have warned the public that OneCoin is a scam.
The central bank warns that OneCoin Network Limited, OneCoin Limited, and One Network Services Ltd, from Belize, Dubai, and Bulgaria respectively, are not allowed to receive deposits or other repayable funds in the country.
