Spain passes law to end oil and gas exploration on land and sea

AS the Spanish Parliament ratified the Climate Change and Energy Transition Act on May 13, it joins three other countries which now ban the search for new hydrocarbon resources.

This only applies to land and sea exploration in the national territory and Spanish companies such as Cepsa and Repsol will continue exploration overseas although that may end eventually as Spain leads a ‘green revolution’.

Nicolas Entrup, Co-Director of International Relations at OceanCare, an international organisation for the protection of marine wildlife and its environment commented; “We applaud the Spanish Government and Parliament for today’s decision to ban oil and gas exploration.

“Spain is now within the group of progressive countries that are committed to putting an end to the era of fossil fuels and moving towards the decarbonization of the economy, in compliance with the Paris Agreement”

Spain follows countries such as France, Denmark and New Zealand which have previously taken similar legislative steps.

A significant improvement achieved during the parliamentary processing with respect to exploration projects currently in the pipeline is that applications for authorisation to exploit hydrocarbons that have not been initiated prior to the date of entry into force of this Law will no longer be admissible.

This will effectively put an end to most of the projects currently in the pipeline. Finally, December 31, 2042 is set as the date for the definitive termination of the last hydrocarbon exploitation concession currently in force.