“We have had continuous investment in the search for oil in Portugal with new seismic 3D technology. With existing and planned research, the probability of finds with economic viability rises,” Martins told a conference on the issue held at Lisbon’s Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.
Around half of this money had gone into prospecting in the Lusitânica basin with the Peniche and Alentejo basins accounting for the bulk of the remaining expenditure with the Algarve receiving a residual fraction.
Among the lead participants are the aforementioned foundation’s’ financial holding Partex and the European oil companies Repsol, Eni and Galp.
Last week saw Portfuel announce it would begin searching for oil in Portugal following the award of a concession for onshore prospecting in the Aljezur and Tavira area of the Algarve for an eight-year period.
The conference also heard that a consortium headed by the Italian major ENI would proceed in 2016 with an offshore well around 80 kilometres from the coast of Sines.
This constitutes the first deepwater exploration in Portuguese waters. 27 other wells have already been bored in continental shelf waters.
ENI representative Franco Conticini said that the 45-day long period of drilling would ascertain the viability of future prospecting with further drilling required to ascertain the size and scale of any find made in the meantime.