"It is a technical but also a social study that we are doing, which will come with a recommendation in the coming weeks", said Andy Brown at the headquarters of the Commission for Coordination and Regional Development of the North (CCDR-N).

The Galp executive acknowledged that the company is "looking at various locations, talking to local authorities, looking at all the things that would make these conversion facilities a success".

At stake are issues "of logistics, services" and "access to gas networks", he enumerated, with the possibility that this lithium refinery succeeding the oil company in Leça da Palmeira, in Matosinhos, being ruled out.