Few countries have a hydrocarbon history as difficult and convoluted as Portugal. It has lost its colonies just as Angola’s oil production was on the brink of multiplying – later even Mozambique turned out to be a superb gas-producing region with giant fields like Rovuma. Currently, Portugal has no oil production whatsoever, perhaps a noteworthy reminder that the progenitor of the leading Portuguese oil company, Galp Energia, was established specifically for the purposes of exploration and production in Africa, not in Europe. Recently, a new spark of activity has generated substantial buzz in Portugal, entertaining a hope that there might in fact be oil in Portugal, yet the prospects of it being produced commercially still look vague. The media hype reached its apex in 2015 when a British company named IONIQ Resources has stated it had located six oil-bearing deposits in Portugal with reserves totaling at least 1 billion […]