The Canary Islands once again face the threat of oil prospecting in waters close to the Spanish borders. Morocco has been searching for oil in the deep sea for several months now and after so much searching, it has ended up finding what it longed for. Search work is being carried out in two points close to the Islands: one that is 100 kilometers east of the eastern islands (Fuerteventura and Lanzarote) and the other, the most recent, 350 kilometers northeast of La Graciosa, where an important oil reservoir has been found. Its value would be around 107,000 million dollars, which is equivalent to 99,200 million euros.
This has been verified by the British company Europa Oil & Gas, which began its work last August, specifically in an area of just over 11.2 square kilometers. Since this discovery the company has insisted on accelerating the procedures to start prospecting as soon as possible in this area known as Inezgane Offshore, which is located on the imaginary line that separates the sea of Spain from that of Morocco.
Added to this possible prospecting are the works that are being carried out a little further south and that are already authorized by Morocco. The Italian oil company ENI and the Qatari company are associated to search for hydrocarbons in the area called Tarfaya Offshore Shallow, between the coast of Agadir and Western Sahara, in a strip divided into 12 blocks covering 23,900 square kilometers.
Repsol already explored those same funds seven years ago and ceased its work when it did not find enough oil to be marketed. These are the surveys that are of greatest concern from the environmental point of view for the Canary Islands, as they are located just 100 kilometers from Lanzarote and Fuerteventura.
In both cases, the surveys will serve to know if the calculations made by the company are really correct, if the crude oil that lies in the subsoil is of good quality and if it is really possible to extract it. And although these ‘punctures’ in the marine subsoil of the Islands will be carried out on the Moroccan side of the border, the risks involved for the Canarian ecosystems are, therefore, the same as if the tastings were carried out on the Spanish side. of the waters.
Neither of the two news has sat well with the Canarian parties, which have opted to form a common political and social front to protect the Islands from said oil prospecting. Their idea is to unite in a similar way to how they did in 2015, when Repsol and the ENI wanted to carry out prospecting near the Canary coast. It was not, however, social pressure from the Canary Islands that caused the companies to give up, but rather the prospecting at that time did not bear the expected results.
Added to this concern is the little room for maneuver that the regional government has in the framework of the current negotiations between Spain and Rabat. In these meetings, Morocco has already put on the table its dissatisfaction with the criteria applied to establish the imaginary dividing line between the two countries and defends that the border should be even closer to Fuerteventura and Lanzarote.
Spain has always stood firm in the face of pressure from the Alaouite country, because it knows that the division of the median is protected by the law of the sea, but the turn of the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, in the conflict in Eastern Sahara has caused suspicions between Canaries.
How does prospecting affect the environment?
The islanders have repeatedly raised their voices unanimously against oil prospecting. This is not surprising, since this activity poses high risks for the rich biodiversity and marine ecosystems of the Islands, while can cause serious damage to economic activities in the Canary Islands, such as fishing or tourism. And it is that, as Greenpeace points out, “there is no safe way to extract oil in deep waters”, since these wells pose enormous risks of spills, fires and contamination.
In the first phase, prospecting, it is carried out by means of compressed air cannons -o air guns– capable of generating sound waves that define the structure of the marine floor and subsoil. These waves have intensity levels (180-250 dB) that are intolerable for marine fauna and can cause stranding of cetaceans.
These acoustic detonations can cause damage to the fishing resources present in the areas affected by the prospecting. This is highlighted by studies on similar campaigns carried out in the North Sea that reflect how the fish suffered changes in behavior and developed lesions in the swim bladder, eyes, inner ear and lateral line.
The risks of drilling
In a second phase, the wells would be drilled. For this, a mixture of minerals and chemical products would be used, throwing the waste directly into the sea. from the drilling, in such a way that, in the mixture with the clays of the bottom, an oily mud would be formed, deadly for the marine fauna of the ocean floor.
Besides, could bury submerged habitats of high ecological value, such as seagrass meadows and brown algae forests. This activity produces devastating effects on what is within a radius of 500 meters from the drilling and substantial changes can be observed in an area of 20 square kilometers.
In the oil extraction phase, compounds are released, such as heavy metals or aromatic hydrocarbons, that can reach the food chain and, therefore, the human being, causing damage to health.
In addition, the simple search for oil means continuing to bet on an energy model that is not only outdated, experts point out, but also goes against any progress in renewable energy models and the fight against climate change.
“The blackmail of Morocco”
Meanwhile, the President of the Cabildo de Gran Canaria, Antonio Morales, warns of the “high risk” that prospecting entails of oil that the Moroccan government carries out in front of the Canary waters, in waters of its competence, and asks to be “attentive” because, in his opinion, “Spain is continually giving in to Moroccan blackmail.”
“We cannot continue extracting fossil fuels. We have to turn our gaze towards renewables, which is where we have to insist. It is barbaric to maintain the use of oil because climate change we must stop it from “a real energy transition”, He pointed out this Thursday in statements to the media.
According to Morales, both the Government of Spain and that of the Canary Islands “must denounce the extractions” that, although “they are not in the Canary waters, they are in their limits” and put the tourism sector “at risk” and survival itself because “we are islands that depend on desalinated water”. “Contamination by oil spills can be a serious problem for survival”, in reference to the purification of water and tourism.
The Climate Change Law recently approved by the Spanish Government prohibits new hydrocarbon explorations in national territory, both marine and terrestrial, but it cannot prevent the action carried out by other countries in their own waters, even being close to Spanish territory.
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