The Matosinhos Refinery began operating in 1970, producing fuels consumed in the north of the country and oils and lubricants for the domestic market and export. The company that owned the refinery decided to close it in 2021, transferring fuel production to the Sines Refinery, increasing business profits and throwing hundreds of workers into unemployment. Inactive today, its demolition and the environmental recovery of the site are planned to be carried out until 2026.

Yesterday, on a beautiful late winter afternoon, full of sun and a light breeze, while walking on a beach near the refinery, I came across this landscape that I tried to capture with the magnificent sensor of my old Hasselblad H4D-40. In the foreground and medium plane, the large granite boulders of Boa Nova beach are illuminated by the bluish light of the late afternoon.

In the background, the refinery, brightly lit, gives the (deceiving) sensation of full activity. Today, it is nothing more than an example of industrial archaeology and not necessarily a sign of a decrease in the country's use of fossil fuels.