With Portugal locked in a bitter wrangle over plans to start oil and gas exploration throughout the country, the president of fuel entity ENMC has been elected chairman of ACOMES, the annual coordinating meeting of entity stockholders, which met in Cyprus last week.
Paulo Carmona – called to parliament earlier this month to explain the signing of ‘suspect contracts’ for onshore drilling in the Algarve – clinched this new position thanks to his “good management practices of strategic reserves”, says ENMC’s website, also citing Carmona’s international reputation within the sector.
ACOMES describes itself as “a meeting of European, Asian and American compulsory stockpiling organisations and agencies for discussing and comparing practical aspects of compulsory stockpiling”.
To the lay reader, this latest feather in Carmona’s cap has come as a nasty surprise.
Laurinda Seabra, CEO of ASMAA – one of the many organisations at the forefront of opposition to oil and gas exploration in the Algarve and Portugal in general – has posted on her Facebook page: “What next? Paulo Carmona attempts to destroy our economy and our environment and is promoted to Chairman? You have to be kidding….”
Seabra is currently on a ‘roll’ organising protests to recent news that oil drilling is set to start off the coast of Aljezur on July 1 (click here).
A petition set up in a bid to halt the drilling has two weeks left to run, while a human-chain protest is being organised this Saturday in front of Aljezur town hall from 3pm.
