Dear supporters and friends / Caros amigos Firstly, thank you to all those of you who are continuing to sign and share the petition - we are now up to almost 6300 signatures on the online petition - which is a wonderful achievement - but let's keep going! The more people we can persuade to join the campaign the better. UPDATE: As we are all aware, 2015 is scheduled to be THE YEAR that oil and gas exploration in the Algarve South and West coasts really kicks off - and according to latest information, this will happen without any Environmental Impact Studies (EIA’s) taking place. Repsol/Partex in the South of Algarve and Galp / ENI in the West Algarve (Alentejo Bay) are the companies that are at the front of this disastrous development, all supported by the Portuguese government. As we shared with you in December, we were well aware of the Repsol/Partex initiative, but the signing of an agreement by Galp and ENI in December 2014 took us a bit by surprise. But one thing is still true … there’s very little information about the when and the what … its all shrouded in secrecy, but that needs to change. In Portuguese /and some articles in English - a very good overview of what is happening in 2015 in the oil and gas front: https://gasnaturalnao.wordpress.com/ NEXT ACTION: We want to run a Twitter and Facebook campaign next week to share the petition and demand the appropriate environmental impact studies are carried out. Use ash-tags in your messages on the social media platforms. Here’s the two messages that we need your help in spreading it on social media: 1. We demand that EIA’s are carried out before any further work is conducted by Repsol/Partex and Galp/ENI in 2015. 2. Sign the petition against oil and gas exploration in Algarve. http://tinyurl.com/qyjpqfm Here’s some ashtag suggestions: #NOOIL&GASINALGARVE #NAOGAS&PETROLEONOALGARVE #REPSOL #GALP #ENVIRONMENTALPROTECTION #SAVETHEALGARVESEA #NOOIL&GASDRILLING #SALVAROMARNOALGARVE #NODRILLINGINALGARVE Over the coming months, we will progress with the campaign aims using various processes, including meetings, lobbying, working with the media, getting input from NGOs and other interested environmental groups, Twitter storms, and much, much more. HOW YOU CAN HELP: JOIN US: Here’s a list of many things that you can do. And most of them DO NOT COST YOU anything just a bit of your time. http://asmaa-algarve.org/index.php/en/campaigns/oil-and-gas-in-the-algarve/what-can-you-do DONATE: It’s very difficult to run a campaign with no funds or very limited funds. It’s in fact a daunting task. So, if you can assist with a donation we thank you. http://asmaa-algarve.org/index.php/en/donate Thank you so much, as always, for your on-going support. May 2015 be a great year for all of you. Together, we can make a difference. The ASMAA Team