Since Friday last week that we have been inundated with calls, messages, emails and Facebook contacts about an offshore oil exploration platform that is anchored just off Lagos/Portimao coastal area.
In spite of all the challenges along the years since we started the anti-oil drilling campaign in 2009, the end result, is that we achieved what we set-up to achieve, which was to STOP all onshore and offshore drilling for oil & gas in Algarve.
There is no doubt that it seems easy to detail a chronology of legal actions over time, but in reality what this chronology does not include are the thousands of hours spent in research, analysis of opinions, studies and reports.
Last year, the government of Antonio Costa did a major restructuring, and we saw “energy” being taken away from the Ministry of Economy and transferred to the Environment Ministry. The Environment Ministry was then renamed as the Ministry of Environment and Energetic Transition (Ministério do Ambiente e da Transição Energética).
According to information released to a journalist on 4 February, the Galp / ENI concessionaires say that everything has, in fact, been suspended. And they stated that the withdrawal of the contracts from the DGEG website was only a formality that was already scheduled to take place on 31 January.
ASMAA takes this opportunity to inform all those who have been following the anti-oil drilling legal process currently taking place in the Administrative and Fiscal Court of Loulé, that the court hearing, scheduled for 11 February at 2:00 p.m., was canceled by the court yesterday.
After last October GALP announced, and the Portuguese government publicly confirmed that they were giving up their interest in the Santola concession and abandoning the drilling in Aljezur, but all official requests for clarification have been ignored.
In the last few years and in many circumstances, the only time we can guarantee that there is no disinformation - not to call it lies – coming out of the mouths of politicians, is when they keep their mouths shut. It looks like that once again we are confronted with another blatant example of why politicians have no credibility left.