According to Partex, who will work alongside Repsol, prospecting will start in early autumn between 40 to 50 kilometres off the coastline, directly in line with Faro.
António Costa e Silva said this week all mechanisms are already in place for prospection for natural gas to start in the autumn.
The Partex chief stressed that “there will not be any oil rigs coming up in front of beaches”, adding that all work “will be conducted under the sea level.”
António Costa e Silva explained that the mission to find natural resources in Portugal is one of “national sovereignty and only once an inventory has been drawn up of what resources lie beneath the ocean floor should the discussion as to who might or might not explore the country’s mineral wealthtake place.”
The Partex-Repsol consortium currently holds the rights to four sites off the Algarve coast.
Meanwhile, Sousa Cintra of Portfuel has also come out this week to state that oil prospection and exploration of his company at sites off Aljezur and Tavira comply with all requirements.
“We are completely at ease as we have complied with everything which is found in the contract we signed with the Portuguese state”, Cintra, who also owns a fuel retailer, explained.
As for concerns about the environment and tourism, Sousa Cintra told the Lusa News Agency that “wherever there is the most tourism there is oil – Brazil, Miami, Dubai and Mexico, to give a few examples.”
He added that if oil were to be found off the Algarve coast it “would be good for everyone.”
According to the National Authority for the Fuel Market (ENMC) the prospection for oil at Aljezur and Tavira will be conducted over a period of eight years and at a final estimated cost of four million euros.
But in a statement sent to The Portugal News on Wednesday evening, the Left Bloc revealed that a motion it presented to a Parliamentary Select Committee to hear the former Minister of Environment had been accepted.
In a letter to the Committee Left Bloc MPs for the Algarve, João Vasconcelos and Jorge Costa want to know why the contract for oil prospection in the Algarve was signed ten days before last October’s general elections.
It also questions how a company which was created in 2013 could be handed the contract when one of the requirements to lodge a tender was that a company hand in its previous three years’ financial results.
The Algarve MPs further question “how a company can be awarded an exploration area covering 300,000 hectares and for a period of 40 years when it does not have any experience, the manpower, not having paid a deposit and without presenting its annual plan.”
The Left Bloc told The Portugal News that the date for the hearing of former minister Jorge Moreira da Silva should be “announced shortly.”
Back in December the mayors of the Algarve, through the inter-municipal association AMAL, put out a statement in which they expressed their “displeasure, serious doubts, concerns and enormous scepticism” regarding the matter of prospecting in the region.
They further accused the state of treating the Algarve and its inhabitants with “disdain” since proceedings began.
AMAL claims that even though the process has been ongoing since 2005, the region’s entities have never been “informed or consulted.”
But ENMC President Paulo Carmona said at the time: “It is necessary to do away with pre-conceived ideas.
“There isn’t a country that has discovered energy resources and that hasn’t explored them, and of course we must be careful with the environmental aspects”, he added.
The head of the ENMC insisted that in this current phase of prospecting and exploration, there are no environmental risks. Only if oil or natural gas were to be found and proceedings moved on to a phase of exploration, would it be necessary to carry out a public consultation and study environmental impact, he explained.
“Portugal is not a rich country and we want to develop our natural resources in a sustainable manner” Paul Carmona stressed, backed by several representatives of exploration companies who guaranteed that “very strict” European environmental standards are being met.
Meanwhile, according to details of the deal signed by the Partex-Repsol consortium in the Algarve, the licence cost 286,000 euros.
Drilling is expected to occur at a depth of 200 metres. This area off the protected Ria Formosa reserve has previously been detected as having “promising indications” that oil and natural gas could in fact exist not too far from the coastline.
The Ria Formosa is one of
the world’s largest protected reserves.
Upon an eventual discovery of mineral resources, the companies will immediately be entitled to a 30-year exploration period in the Algarve, which could be extended to up to 55 years.
This particular area of the Algarve has already been subject to searches for oil in the past.
In 1974, Chevron and Challenger were awarded short-term contracts, and Esso back in 1980, with minimal results.
The contract to seek natural mineral resources off the Algarve coastline was first presented in 2001, but was only signed five years ago.