Brazil’s state oil firm gets oil exploration license in Amazon region
(MENAFN) Brazil’s state-owned oil company Petrobras has been granted a licence to conduct exploratory drilling in the sea off the Amazon, despite widespread environmental concerns.
The approval allows Petrobras to drill in a block located in Amapá, approximately 500 km (311 miles) from the mouth of the Amazon River on the Brazilian Equatorial Margin. The company stated that it had shown the government it has strong environmental protection measures in place.
Conservationists have voiced concerns, warning that oil spills could threaten the Amazon, home to roughly 10% of the world’s known species, via sea currents. Groups including Greenpeace have also cautioned that the project could undermine Brazil’s climate leadership ahead of the COP30 summit in Belém this November. The International Energy Agency has recommended that no new oil projects be approved if the world is to meet net zero emissions by 2050.
Petrobras said drilling would begin “immediately” and last five months, aiming to determine whether commercially viable oil and gas deposits exist in the area. The company clarified that production would not occur at this stage.
Brazil’s environment minister, Marina Silva, has opposed drilling in the Amazon region. However, President Lula da Silva has supported the project for economic reasons and defended it publicly. In September, Lula told a news outlet: “Brazil is a country that has oil. And possibly we have oil in the Equatorial Margin, and we are making surveys. We're following the law strictly.”
He added: “If there was a problem or an oil spill, then we will be the ones that are liable and responsible to take care of the problem, if it comes. I am totally in favour of a world one day that will not need any more fossil fuels, but this moment has not come yet. I want to know [of] any country on the planet that is prepared to have an energy transition and can give up fossil fuels.”
Other international oil firms, including ExxonMobil and Chevron, have purchased exploration blocks in the Amazon and are awaiting licences. Petrobras emphasized its commitment to the country’s “energy security and the resources needed for a just energy transition,” adding that it had “demonstrated the robustness of the entire environmental protection structure that will be available during drilling.”
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