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.

A ASMAA informa todos os que têm seguido esta luta a decorrer no Tribunal Administrativo e Fiscal de Loulé, de que a audiência prévia, marcada para 11 de feveiro às 14h00, foi ontem cancelada pelo tribunal.

De acordo com informação divulgada a um jornalista no dia 4 fevereiro, as concessionárias Galp/ENI dizem que tudo foi, de facto, suspenso. E reafirmam que a retirada da página do DGEG foi apenas uma formalidade que já estava prevista no dia 31 de janeiro.

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.

Depois de em Outubro do ano passado a GALP ter anunciado, e o governo português confirmado publicamente, que teria desistido do furo de Aljezur, na concessão Santola, todos os pedidos oficiais de esclarecimento não tiveram resposta.

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.

Atualmente, e em muitas circunstâncias, só podemos garantir que não existe desinformação (para não lhe chamar mentira) quando os políticos mantêm as bocas fechadas, porque se as abrem ou entra moscas ou sai asneira.

Lisbon offices of the ENMC (the entity that authorises oil and gas drilling) and the DGEG (department of energy and geology) were searched earlier this week by PJ criminal police, on the basis of a ‘complaint’ made by Algarve anti-oil campaigners ASMAA.