Sines Municipality is located at the centre of the coast line of the Alentejo region, 150 kilometres south of Lisbon.

The main urban centres are the town of Sines (administrative capital of the Sines Municipality and the Sines Parish) and the village of Porto Covo (capital of the Porto Covo Parish).

The Municipality has an area of 202.7 square kilometres and, according to the 2001 census, a resident population of about 13,577. This number does not include a sizeable floating population of about 5,000 tourists and workers.

The municipality is, without doubt, the largest employment area in the Alentejo Coast region, providing jobs in large-scale port and industrial activities as well as in the small and medium-sized companies that coexist with the area’s other economic activities. 

The municipality capital, Sines, is currently the Alentejo Coast town with the greatest growth prospects, due mainly to the large companies that operate in the area or that have expressed an interest in setting up there as a result of the new dynamic created by the the container port and the liquid natural gas terminal.

The south of the municipality(south of St. Torpes beach) is a coastal area of notable landscapes with some of Portugal’s most unspoilt beaches, forming part of the Southwest Alentejo and Vicentine Coast Nature Park.