Portfuel, owned by local millionaire businessman José de Sousa Cintra, (pictured below), has obtained the concession to drill for oil in the Algarve near Aljezur in the west and Tavira to the east - within the brown blocs marked on the adjoining map.

Portfuel announced the concession today and will be at first using traditional well drilling to see if and where oil reserves lie.

The 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.

Now there are two Oilgarves. 'Oilgarve – the Algarve says no to oil' the anti-oil exploitation pressure group run by ASMAA from its Lagos base, and as of three days ago, the pro-oil 'Oilgarve' Facebook page put up by the 'Oilgarve Exploration Company, Ltd.'

This company, according to the blurb, ‘is a private company based in Algarve, Portugal,’ although no Limited company of that name is registered in the UK or Portugal and does not show up on searches of international company registers.

In a damning analysis of the detail of the contracts signed between the Portuguese state and oil companies, the treasury is set to receive between just 10 or 25 cents per barrel of oil, or gas equivalent, should hydrocarbons be extracted off the Algarve southern coastline - whatever the international oil price.

The controversial and restrictive contract disadvantages the Portuguese public but was signed on behalf of the nation by the Secretary of State for Energy, Henrique Gomes Cabral in October 2011.

Eco campaigners ASMAA outline the latest oil exploration contracts and ask - have we been sold a pup?

Have the Portuguese and foreign investors been sold a rotten tomato with the oil contracts?

The Algarve’s anti-oil exploration platform has launched a petition to ensure the controversial topic is discussed in parliament now that exploration licenses have been issued that allow exploration on land as well as off the Algarve's coastline.

The PALP platform, made up of the regions eco and nature organisations, said the new petition was launched on August 5th and it aims to gather the 4,000 signatures necessary for the subject to receive debating time in Portugal’s assembly.

Researchers from the University of the Algarve and 18 other countries are to cooperate in one of the most ambitious marine research projects for decades.

Sadly, the research is necessary due to the risks associated with the oil transport business in the Atlantic and especially off Portugal’s south west tip where tankers pass, heading to and from the Mediterranean.

As part of an awareness campaign of the risks to the Algarve should oil and gas drilling tests lead to a full blown hydrocarbon extraction business in the Algarve’s coastal waters, the anti-oil action group PALP has organised a walk and kayak expedition this coming Sunday, June 28th

"The goal is to once again seek to mobilise and raise awareness Algarve-wide," said Joao Eduardo Martins from PALP, who said the first test drilling is scheduled for this October.