Petrobras president denies crisis and reaffirms intention to drill at the mouth of the Amazon

The president of Petrobras, Jean Paul Prates, denied this weekend that he is in a crisis with the government due to oil exploration at the mouth of the Amazon River, in Amapá, and demands from the Ministry of Mines and Energy to increase production of natural gas.

Prates says that there is a “campaign to destabilize the current management of Petrobras” and that he would be receiving criticism for not being more emphatic enough to get permission for drilling in this stretch of the Equatorial Margin.

“As in other matters, they try to create crises where there are none. The project has been emphatically and diligently defended in the appropriate forums and instances. And before public opinion we have also positioned ourselves very clearly since April”, said Prates on social media.

According to him, conducting a licensing request for drilling the well at the mouth of the Amazon “requires a lot of responsibility and, above all, respect for the environmental agencies involved (federal and state), communities and local governments.”

Drilling is seen as one of the main objectives of Petrobras in the strategic plan until 2027, with resources destined to the exploration of the entire Equatorial Margin in the order of R$ 13 billion for the drilling of 16 wells. The company has been constantly reaffirming its ability to operate these deposits safely and without risk of possible leaks that could affect the region’s fauna.

Petrobras claims that the site to be drilled is 560 kilometers away from the site.

“The exploratory campaign proposed by Petrobras for the Equatorial Margin begins with a set of investigative wells in a row. The same rig will have to drill them as each license is concluded,” said Prates.

Also according to him, exploration along the entire Brazilian Equatorial Margin “will be important for replenishing our reserves that will lead us to finance the energy transition. No other oil and gas operator in the world is more capable of drilling in deep and ultra-deep waters off the north coast of our country, in a socially and environmentally committed way with the present and future of communities and populations in the North and Northeast”.

In a recent statement, the director of exploration and production at the state-owned company, Joelson Mendes, stated that exploration in this region of the country will be necessary to compensate for the depletion of the pre-salt layer in the Southeast region of the country, which “will reach its peak around 2030, 2032, and for Brazilian energy security”.

“For us, as a company, to be able to survive as an oil exploration company, we need new exploratory frontiers, which is why all our efforts to bring the best techniques and our entire history as a company that takes care of people, the environment environment and society, so that we can obtain the license to drill on the Equatorial Margin”, he added.