Aug
19
by LEO OLIVERO
PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR: Only two days after the Spanish Fisheries and Environment Minister Miguel Arias Canete made a rousing speech threatening that his Government was going to come down hard on those Gibraltar companies who administer ship bunkers from vessels out in BGTW, quite astonishing news is received that the Spanish Government over the last few months has systematically issued at least four licences that exclusively permits international bunkering companies to refuel vessels whilst in anchor in a Spanish port.
Incredible as it sounds, the totally hyporcritical PP Administration who live by the proverb Do As I Say And Not As I Do are a pathetic excuse for a responsible and democratic modern European Government. How anyone in their right minds can take these people seriously is beyond many people!
Canete on Tuesday made much of the national law passed last November prohibiting the refuelling of vessels out at sea. He explained all the crap about the environment, making special reference to the so called special conservation zone that Madrid thinks it has to police for everyone, including in local waters.
Uproar in Galicia
There was uproar in the Northern Spanish port of Ria De Ferrol in Galicia after the board of the port authority there, (controlled by the Governing PP party) authorised the issuing of at least four new licences permitting the refuelling of vessels out at sea. In fact the licences issued authorises the companies involved to supply oil to all types of vessels, from barges to tankers on the North Atlantic route.
We understand there have been months of hush-hush discussions and preparation before the news broke out, the Spanish Government wanting to keep the whole affair very close to their chest.
Three of the companies involved are well-known bunkering organisations Cepsa who themselves announced this new Spanish venture on their website and already had one of their vessels the Monte Arucas at work last Thursday (see pic); Marine Fuel Limited who promote themselves as the fourth largest bunkering company in the world; marine group Ibaizabal and another familiar name Aegean Limited .
Double-Standards at their Best!
Local opposition parties in the Galician area are up in arms; they cannot believe the double-standards by the Madrid Government, who they say want to clamp down on this refuelling practice in one part of the country one day and then discover that licences which are effectively against Spanish law have been issued by orders of central government the next.
Their complaints have been met by what has been described, as a totally unconvincing answer from the Ministry of the Environment, the same department who banned this type of bunkering in Algeciras, they added. The Ministry trying to convince them that the bunkering procedures are not the same, pointing out that in the Ferrol port area vessels involved delivering fuel are back and forth in round-trips from the dock, while in the Algeciras area bunkering vessels are permanently loaded with fuel .
PP Government Condemned
Few people in Galicia opposing this issue were convinced, particularly when they saw the large Cepsa tanker Monte Arucas arrive in port and remain in her position and not doing many round trips to the dock and back. The Socialists party in the area have condemned the Government and are preparing a series of questions for the minister concerned to answer in the Madrid parliament.
Already a demonstration is being planned to stop this matter going any further. People in this area of Spain feel strongly about this issue, many can remember the Prestige disaster not far from Ferrol when in November 2002 the vessel in rough seas started to spill its load of 77,000 tonnes of fuel which devastated the Galician coast for many years.
Ceuta Wants to Be Exempted from Canetes Threat
This also comes a few days after the PSOE party spoke of Ceuta also wanting to be made an exemption to the so called bunkering hard line by Canete and his Government, they are seeking guarantees that any measures imposed on Gibraltar will not affect them as the economic repercussions would be such that it would seriously affect their economy.
It very much looks that this Spanish Government has national laws for different circumstances, different people and also different areas of Spain, and are applied depending on who you are, what you represent and as in this case it seems, probably the commercial gain involved.
The issuing of four bunkering licenses in Galicia is a highly suspect political manoeuvre. Because only after 48 hours after Canete wanted to lay down the law of the (Spanish) land in British Gibraltar Waters, this story emerges…
Canete himself is an expert in the bunkering world; he would know a good refuelling deal if he saw it on the horizon. Apart from being a personal friend of Mariano Rajoy, he is also one of the richest ministers in the Spanish government; he has property valued at over one million euros, and a declared wealth with assets of 1.7 billion euros.
So, there you are what the Spanish say is wrong for Gibraltar, is right for Spain!
19-08-13
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