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When Joan Cnaves, president of the Balearic fishermen's association, is asked about the plans for offshore oil exploration close to the Mediterranean islands of Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera, he describes the local reaction as one of "total rejection." He says he has data showing that the impact of the seismic tests the oil companies want to carry out in the area could reduce fishing hauls by up to 70 percent.

Cnaves says he wants his children to continue the family tradition and work in fishing, highlighting his sector's contribution to creating a sustainable industry through the creation of protected areas and breeding grounds. It's not just Cnaves and his colleagues who are opposed to offshore drilling in the Balearics; local politicians, and even celebrities such as model Kate Moss and musician David Guetta, have thrown their weight behind the campaign to have it halted. Meanwhile, as the scale of the oil exploration project slowly emerges, the European Union has taken an interest and is watching developments closely in an area of significant biological wealth.

"We have received so many letters about this that we have been obliged to open an investigation," says a source in Brussels. So far, none of the exploration work carried out in the Balearics has produced a formal request for permission to drill. And any such request would depend on environmental impact evaluations, "which are not yet ready," says the same source, adding: "For the moment we are watching events."

The EU is watching developments closely in this area of great biological wealth

The regional government of the Balearics, headed by Popular Party (PP) premier Jos Ramn Bauz, opposes any plans to drill for oil offshore, and is backed by every local council throughout the islands, which are working closely with a range of organizations and civic groups that have garnered huge popular support. In Ibiza, up to 50 civil servants were assigned the task of collating the thousands of letters sent in by local people registering their opposition to any drilling.

This has brought the Balearic branch of the PP into conflict with the government in Madrid. In short, it is between a rock and a hard place: such is the scale of the opposition to the drilling proposals - which includes a heavyweight alliance comprising environmentalists and businesses - that it would be committing electoral suicide to support them.

"Tourism is the Balearics' oil," said Bauz in a recent interview. He has called on Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, and the EU, to call a halt to the exploration. Bauz and the rest of his team on the islands were photographed standing in front of a giant hoarding set up by environmental groups opposed to the drilling in Ibiza. The groups, operating under the umbrella of Alianza Mar Blava (Blue Sea Alliance), have worked hard to rally support throughout the islands for the campaign against drilling.

Spain is not entirely dependent on imported oil: domestic output is 0.3 percent of total consumption. It comes in the form of 8,000 barrels a day extracted by Repsol affiliate Ripsa from an offshore rig in the sea off the Ebro Delta, in Catalonia. The area is close to the zones that three other oil companies want to explore.

Repsol's rig has been producing oil since 1981. Output is low, but in recent years, two new wells connected to the rig have increased output from 2,000 barrels a day to the current figure. Spain has only one other oil well, in Ayoluengo de la Lora, close to the northern city of Burgos, and that has been producing 100 barrels a day of low-quality crude since 1967.

In 1963, when oil was discovered in Ayoluengo, 3D seismic testing did not exist, so the companies involved simply drilled exploratory wells: up to 30 of them amid potato fields. Today, the landscape has been transformed into a mini-Texas, littered with "nodding donkey" oil wells. Repsol asked for permission to carry out systematic 3D seismic surveying in the area around its offshore rig in October of 2012, and has yet to receive permission from the government.

Originally posted here:
Oil prospectors make Balearic bid