"The current and serious episode of marine pollution derived from the sinking of the Russian fishing vessel Oleg Naydenov 15.6 miles off the coast of Gran Canaria demonstrates the vulnerability of the islands to the harmful effects of hydrocarbon spills, reflecting at the same time that neither the Canary Islands nor Spain are minimally prepared to face risks of this nature." That is what the Cabildo of Lanzarote maintains in a statement, in which it insists on requesting the extinction of the permits granted to Repsol to carry out prospecting off the Canary Islands.
"The pollution from this fishing vessel has traveled more than 200 kilometers of ocean in 14 days, demonstrating that high-risk prospecting 55 kilometers off the coast of the Canary Islands represents a potential threat of maximum impact in the event of spills, contrary to what was stated by Minister Soria and Repsol that there is no need to worry because at that distance, the platforms cannot be seen from the coast," the statement insists.
Therefore, although Repsol already announced months ago that it was abandoning prospecting in the Canary Islands as it had not yielded positive results, the Cabildo once again demands that the Ministry of Industry "definitively extinguish the permits" and "protect the area of the surveys as it is one of the places with the greatest marine biodiversity on the planet."
Flatly denies the Ministry's spokesperson
In addition, it "flatly denies" the spokesperson for the Ministry of Industry, the undersecretary of Energy Enrique Hernández-Bento, "for transmitting openly false information to Canarian society about Repsol's prospecting." Specifically, the Cabildo maintains that the Ministry can indeed extinguish the permits granted to Repsol, contrary to what was stated by Hernández Bento, who declared that "the general hydrocarbon law only allows the extinction of a permit when the operator renounces that permit."
For the Cabildo of Lanzarote, "the statements of the head of Industry reflect that either he has not even read the Law that he manages from his own department, or if he has read it and knows it, the seriousness of his irresponsibility increases manifestly, by deceiving the population about the content of a Law and continuing to defend Repsol's private interests."
In this regard, the island corporation points out that the Hydrocarbons Law reflects that authorizations, permits and concessions can be extinguished for three reasons: the renunciation of the interested party, the expiration of the deadlines or the breach of the conditions of its granting. Specifically, it is to this last reason that the Cabildo clings.
On the one hand, because the permit established the obligation to "drill at least two exploratory wells", and "Repsol drilled only one well and failed to comply with the obligation of the second established in the permits." On the other hand, because "the Environmental Impact Statement issued by the Ministry of the Environment on June 11, 2014, establishes that the interval between the end of the first tasting and the beginning of the second was 48 hours, and indicated a total duration of 100 days to undertake the drilling of the two wells." "Having elapsed more than 3 months without carrying out the second well, Repsol has failed to comply with the survey period established by the Ministry of the Environment," insists the Cabildo.
In addition, it considers that the statements made by Repsol and the information published on its own website, announcing that it will not carry out new surveys in the Canary Islands, imply its renunciation to continue with the activity, "so it is up to the Ministry to definitively extinguish these authorizations."