The Azores will be able to license the prospecting, research and exploitation of geological resources in the inland and marine territories of the archipelago.

This will be a consequence of the approval of legislation establishing the "legal scheme for the disclosure and use of natural resources existing in the earth's crust, commonly designated as geological resources, whether or not in public domain, of the land and marine territories of the Autonomous Region of the Azores." This decree will be approved by the Regional Legislative Assembly this Wednesday.

At the presentation of the proposal on yesterday evening, the Regional Secretary for the Environment and the Sea that, in the case of the sea, these possible concessions will comply with "what is established on the shared management of marine resources outside the territorial sea."

According to Álamo Meneses, this legislative initiative follows the creation of the Azores Marine Park which also follows the same logic. The government official also clarified that the legislation to be approved "is necessary and urgent" in light of the "interest shown in the exploitation of mineral resources on the seabed around the archipelago due to the lack of an adequate licensing framework in the Region."

The Regional Secretary for the Environment added that this proposal for regional legislative decree has a "very restricted scope" and "does not collide with the interests of a petition," submitted to the Parliament yesterday. In fact, the signing of contracts for the exploitation and prospecting of the Azores seabed will only take place after an extensive public debate.

As explained to the government official, the regional legislation already requires that any concession made in our waters be subject to environmental impact, which immediately implies a public discussion.

Under the terms of this legislation, whose debate on the details will take place on Wednesday afternoon, the categories of the geological resources on mineral deposits, hydromineral and geothermal resources must be regulated by a regional legislative decree.

According to the proposal under discussion, the legal scheme to be established is not applicable "to the occurrence of hydrocarbons, including natural gas and methane hydrates."

The Government also proposes that the legislation, which will enter into force on the day following its publication, be already implemented in the "ongoing" requests for prospecting, researching and exploiting geological resources.