inhabitants

An online channel for exploratory video and documentary reporting


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Nov. 2016 - March 2017
For An Oil Free Future





For An Oil Free Future is a mini-series of protest videos against fossil fuel prospection and extraction (oil and natural gas) off the Portuguese coast (offshore) and in land (onshore) through fracking.

Synopsis: In a dystopian future in which oil extraction has become a catastrophic reality in Portugal, a citizen-journalist looks back and questions how it was possible to go ahead with such plans.

Over the last few years, and particularly in 2015 under the former PSD/CDS-PP right-wing government, several contracts were signed between the Portuguese State and major oil companies (Galp, Partex, Repsol, Eni, Australis, Cosmos and the controversial Portfuel). The matter is of major national interest, given its environmental impact, rupture with Portugal's international climate agreements, and the redefinition of the country's energy plan. Furthermore, these contracts were signed without any public consultation. In the meantime, the Socialist Party came to power in late 2015, but has avoided making a clear declaration about the situation, and, from the little we know, appears to agree with the plans.

Many activist movements are organizing protests, first in the southern regions of Algarve and Alentejo and then all over the country (with particular expression in Peniche, an area which will also be affected): PALP, MALP, ASMAA, Movimento Futuro Limpo, Climáximo, S.O.S. Salvem o Surf, Não ao Fracking Aljezur, Tavira em Transição, Porto pelo Ambiente and Peniche Livre de Petróleo, among others.

Inhabitants joins this protest by publishing a set of informative videos, playful yet activist, that will hopefully contribute to the canceling of such contracts and, moreover, the complete Portuguese disinvestment in fossil fuels.

For an Oil Free Future was produced by Berardo Museum Collection within the context of the exhibition Matter Fictions, curated by Margarida Mendes. We would like to thank: Margarida Mendes, João Camargo, Prof. Júlia Seixas, Prof. Filipe Duarte Santos, Gonçalo Gama Pinto, Vítor de Andrade, Francisca Manuel, Daniel Melim, Catarina de Oliveira, Estelle Nabeyrat, Francisca Aires, Luís Lázaro Matos, Mariana Silva, Marisa Fálcon, Paula Sá Nogueira, Pedro Barateiro, Pedro Gomes. Produced by inhabitants and Gonçalo Gama Pinto.

Para versão portuguesa: Para um futuro livre de petróleo.

berardologo



UPDATES:
(December 2016): The portuguese government has publicly affirmed this month that the contracts for the prospection and extraction of gas via fracking in the interior of Algarve have been cancelled. Government will also begin the process of cancelling the contracts with Repsol and Partex for drilling for offshore oil in Algarve. However, the government justified its decision because administrative reasons, not for political reasons.
(January 2017): Incongruent with its own decision, plans for oil and gas extraction across the rest of Portugal are still going ahead. More urgently, the first drill, by ENI and GALP, is expect to go ahead between April-May of 2017 off the coast of Aljezur in Alentejo.
There is still much to do in order to cancel all contracts in Portugal!

(March 2017): The campaign Jobs for the Climate opens its Portuguese website: Empregos pelo Clima.

(October 2018): ENI and GALP withdraw from plans to drill off the coast of Aljezur in Alentejo, under pressure from activist and environmental movements across the country, with PALP (Plataforma Algarve Livre de Petróleo) playing a key role in the mobilization. Movements are now focusing their energy against proposed drilling on land in Aljubarrota. However, as the words of climate change researcher and activist João Camargo remind us, "It is not enough to stop these new plans and oil, gas, and coal infrastructure: we must shut down those that remain open, despite long after their life cycle. (...) The struggle against oil and gas crosses thematical and political borders; it is not only about the environment, it is about society; it is about development choices and alternatives." (Público, 29 October 2018).



Extras:
PALP movement YouTube channel with several informative videos
Extras:
Video: Petróleo, Gás e Outros Furos em Portugal
Extras:
TV program Prós e Contras about the signed contracts
Extras:
Seven reasons against oil and gas extraction and against fracking in Portugal
Extras:
Jobs for the Climate campaing in Portugal
Extras:
Join the Futuro Limpo Manifesto!
Other Episodes: