"This investment will definitely be done by private entities,” said the minister of environment and energy transition João Matos Fernandes, after a hearing in parliament of the committee on economy, innovation and public works.

“We currently have a candidate to be able to do it, using the best of channels, which is the Alviela [water] pipe, which is 150 years old that supplies Lisbon and which is in the course of being decommissioned, because there are already other alternatives."

Earlier, the minister had announced that a pipeline would be built to supply the Lisbon airport that would take advantage of an existing water pipe, and that the project should be completed by the middle of 2021.

The legal aspects of the bid by CLC-Companhia Logística de Combustíveis, a subsidiary of Galp Energia that manages the pipeline between Sines and Aveiras de Cima and also the storage and dispatch of fuels at Aveiras de Cima, are currently being assessed, he added.