Relief on Costa del Sol as gas drilling project abandoned

FOLLOWING more than a decade of doubts and arguments going back and forth, the Costa de Sol will not see gas drilling platforms erected in its waters. 

Energy multinational Repsol has renounced the rights it was given in 2004 to drill in search of gas off the coast of Mijas and Fuengirola.

Two weeks before the investigation permit was due to run out (on August 20) the global energy company has informed the Ministry of Industry that it will not be applying for another extension to continue waiting for the Spanish government to award final permissions to drill.

The company announced that its withdrawal was due to business interests as it had recently acquired an important amount of shares in Canadian Talisman Energy, and after analysing all the projects on the table had decided to put all its efforts into those which were more advanced and likely to be successful and park those which were uncertain.

Regarding Siroco, as the Costa del Sol project was christened, geological and geophysical studies pointed to the existence of an estimated five billion cubic metres of methane gas 1,600 metres under the seabed.

Following this news, the Malaga coasts are officially free of prospection projects, at least for the time being, as back in April CNWL Oil España also renounced its rights to drill for fuel in the Alboran sea.