Anti-oil association, ASMAA, issued a notice today 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 cancelled by the court.
The reasons for this cancellation arise from the need to clarify the legal status of the contracts.
Although the contracts allegedly ceased to have legal effect on 31.01.2019, and the TUPEM licence was allegedly valid only until 10.01.2019, there’s lack of clarity regarding its current or future legal status.
Yesterday, the Court ordered the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Transition to inform the court, within ten working days (by 19 February), if there are any extensions to the three contracts and to the TUPEM licence.
The court instructed further, that in the event that an extension of the contracts has been granted, then the Ministry of the Environment is asked to inform the court, "what terms and for how long have the contracts been or will be extended."
Once again, ASMAA reinforces its standpoint that until ASMAA has clear and official evidence that all contracts are in fact, totally extinct, which relates to the concession of exploration rights, research, development and production of oil and gas in the Alentejo Basin for the concession areas Lavagante, Gamba and Santola, the fight to stop the drilling continues.
