Portugal says is currently assessing “local and international proposals” for shale gas drilling in the Algarve.
The country’s government says it believes the southern region of the country, popular with tourists, could play host to large reserves of shale gas which would be suitable for export.
“There is a high likelihood of large amounts of the resource in Algarve,” said Alvaro Pereira, the country’s economy minister.
We expect that this will be confirmed when the drilling starts, planned for 2014.
“Shale gas in Algarve might turn out to be a resource that we could send to countries who are not fully energy-independent.”
The government also expects to find substantial shale gas deposits in the country’s mainland, specifically the Aljubarrota and Alcobaca regions – an area of 121,000 hectares – where extraction work has already started.
“For next year we have drilling planned on 10 deposits. We are also expecting to find oil in this region,” Pereira said.
According to government estimates, 40million euros have been invested to date into shale gas exploration in Portugal, with a further investment of between 25million and 1billion euros expected in the upcoming years.