The oil companies GALP and ENI (through its subsidiary SAIPEM) received, respectively, «more than 70 million and 201 million euros in tax benefits» from the Portuguese State, today denounced the Climáximo movement.
"The fallacious argument raised by the Secretary of State, that he had authorized drilling at sea because the companies had already invested 70 million euros, is therefore exposed: three governments have already given almost four times that amount in tax benefits to oil companies", he stresses. environmental movement fighting for climate justice.
“The entire process of oil concessions in Portugal is now covered by an enormous cloak of opacity and lies: the government must revoke the authorization for the Aljezur borehole and cancel the concessions still in force,” he stresses.
According to Climáximo, «the opacity of the process of oil concessions in Portugal today won yet another episode of shame, with the discovery that GALP and SAIPEM, directly involved in the oil hole authorized by the government to occur this year in the Aljezur sea , received tax benefits of 271 million euros between 2010 and 2016».
According to data revealed by the movement, in 2010 and 2011, GALP received 34 million euros in the Free Trade Zone of Madeira, while in 2015 and 2016, it received more than 32,8 million, mainly due to tax exemptions in the Tax on Products Oil.
Between 2012 and 2014, GALP's tax benefits in Portugal were lower, mainly because its tax office moved to the Netherlands.
• In 2010, SAIPEM Portugal, divided into SAIPEM Perfurações e Construções Petrolíferos and SAIPEM SGPS, received 5.767.081 euros;
• In 2012, it received €43.636.284;
• in 2013, it received €24.086.513,
• in 2014, it received €53.068.618,
• in 2015, it received €42.899.518;
• in 2016, it received €32.498.501.
Meanwhile, SAIPEM Portugal Comércio Marítimo Unipessoal Limitada, the company that owns the vessel authorized to drill the oil well in Aljezur, SAIPEM 12000, received almost 200 million euros in tax benefits in the Madeira Free Trade Zone.
SAIPEM Portugal Comércio Marítimo Unipessoal Limitada, in addition to owning SAIPEM 12000, is 100% owned by SAIPEM SpA, a company that was a division of ENI and whose largest shareholder is also ENI, concessionaire in the “Santola” area, where it is designed. the hole of Aljezur.
“In 2014, SAIPEM Portugal was the biggest recipient of tax benefits in the country. In these five years, it has received more than 201 million euros», reveals Climáximo.
The tax benefit data for 2017 have not yet been published by the Tax and Customs Entity, «but there is little reason to believe that it has not been another year of tens of millions of euros in tax benefits to oil companies, granted either through Madeira offshore. , or through the Petroleum Products Tax'.
In addition, says the movement, "before 2010 there will certainly be more relevant data in terms of benefits."
Climáximo argues that "among the many falsehoods invoked by Secretary of State for Energy Jorge Seguro Sanches, to authorize the extension for the third time of the well off Aljezur, based almost exclusively on a report by the National Entity for the Fuel Market (ENMC) ), it was said that companies had already invested 70 million euros in the concession between 2007 and 2016. However, even if that were true, today we learn that, in only part of that period (between 2010 and 2016), three successive governments (The second government of José Sócrates, the government of Passos Coelho and the current government of António Costa) allowed these companies to receive tax benefits in an amount that is almost four times that invoked by the ENMC».
"This entity, whose extinction was approved in 2016 by the Parliament, but which remains in operation, is a sounding board for the communication offices of oil companies," the statement added.
Climáximo considers that "after the successive challenges to the completion of this hole, the profound contempt for the opinion of populations, movements, local authorities, this new chapter in the history of oil concessions in Portugal stains an already dirty process with the ignominy of direct support, with the citizens' money, to the oil industry».
Therefore, the movement argues that «it is time for the current government, which does not waste a moment to advertise that it is committed to combating climate change while supporting investment in fossils and filling the coffers of oil companies with 265 million euros in tax benefits. , gain shame».
The government “must revoke the authorization for the Aljezur well and cancel oil concessions on land and at sea in Portugal. And it has, definitely, to stop subsidizing the oil industry and, indeed, all companies headquartered in the tax haven of Madeira».
Climáximo ends its statement appealing "to the entire population" to "join movements, municipalities, student associations and populations across the country and, on April 14, at 15 pm, in Lisbon, march with us , from Largo Camões to the Assembly of the Republic, in the Manifestation “Burying the Hole once and for all, taking the oil from the sea”».
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