The OILGARVE Drilling Starts in October 2015 and in the horizon we have Fracking too

The OILGARVE Drilling Starts in October 2015 and in the horizon we have Fracking tooThe Portuguese government has given away the oil and gas exploration and exploitation contracts in the Algarve Basin for only 0.10c and 0.25c a barrel for life.

What that means in simple terms is that Portugal is putting corporate profits before public or environmental good. This means that it will affect the tourism business that you depend on to live, that it will reduce the number of jobs available for people like you, that it will affect the value of your property, that it will affect the survival of your business.

IS THIS WHAT YOU WANT? TO LOOSE EVERYTHING IN THE FUTURE BECAUSE YOU FAILED TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT NOW?

ASMAA has been fighting against this situation for the past 3 years. We have been on a massive campaign informing as many people as we could across the Algarve and in Europe. We have researched, gathered information in an environment where information was non-existent – with a near total blackout of information imposed by the government and by the oil companies. And we have been doing that, with very limited resources both in human as well as in financial terms, while both the government and the companies (Repsol/Partex) have very deep pockets.

BUT for the first time since we started this campaign, WE HAVE A REAL OPPORTUNITY TO SUCCEED at STOPPING the Lagosta and Lagostim contracts. For the first time we have substantive grounds to request an investigation by the European Commission for Energy into the contracts. But we need funds to continue with the campaign.

WHY ELSE SHOULD YOU HELP US?

If we succeed in this attempt, it will open the doors to question all the other contracts. It will give us a stronger voice to demand public consultation, EIA’s (environmental impact studies), to demand transparency into the offshore licencing process because it is not ONLY offshore oil that YOU need to worry about.

Currently the Portuguese government is busy with negotiations for Fracking licences in the Aljezur and Tavira areas (inland) – and nobody is being told anything about it. The government is not disclosing anything.

DO YOU WANT NOT ONLY OFFSHORE PLATFORMS BUT ALSO FRACKING IN YOUR AREA?

We don’t have the infrastructure nor the resources that the government and the oil and gas companies have, but we have showed during the past 3 years that we can put up a massive fight with help of small donations from our members. That's how we have been fighting until now.
We don’t receive grants nor funding of any kind from corporations, nor from government like many other Portuguese environmental NGOs do – which effectively silences and stops them from really fighting on your behalf. But our financial independence allows us to fight this issue on your behalf.

We need your help to pay our legal team and to support the costs of this last effort. Will you chip in €25, €50 or €100 so we don't lose the ALGARVE that we all know and love?
Via PAYPAL: info@asmaa-algarve.org

ELETRONIC BANK TRANSFER: ASMAA Algarve Surf and Marine Activities Association
NIB: 0038 0000 40309681771 32 (If you are in Portugal)
IBAN: PT50 0038 0000 40309681771 32 (For International payments)
BIC: BNIFPTPL
REF: SAY NO TO OIL

Or directly online in our site: http://asmaa-algarve.org/index.php/en/donate

WILL YOU HELP US TO CONTINUE WITH THIS FIGHT?
We have sufficient grounds to believe that the first platforms will be in the water in October this year. Our target is to submit our application for an investigation into the contracts by 15 September – which is ONLY one week away. But we still don’t have the funds to pay the expected legal costs nor other operational costs that will enable us to do so. We are still a 1000€ short on our budget.

Thanks for all you do,

The ASMAA Team