Exploring the equatorial margin is a priority, says ministry – 7/5/2023 – Environment

Brazil will act with a “firm hand” to comply with environmental steps and advance in oil and gas exploration on the Brazilian equatorial margin, an extensive region on the country’s north coast considered a new frontier for the industry, said this Wednesday (5) the secretary -Executive of the Ministry of Mines and Energy, Efrain Cruz, emphasizing that the portfolio is committed despite Ibama’s denials.

When reading a speech sent by the Minister of Mines and Energy, Alexandre Silveira, Cruz also stressed that the country cannot do without exploration in the region, which includes sedimentary basins from Rio Grande do Norte to Amapá, with great potential for discoveries, but enormous challenges. environmental.

When starting his speech, Cruz mentioned that the topic was discussed this Wednesday morning in a meeting with the president of BNDES (National Bank for Economic and Social Development), Aloizio Mercadante.

“We were talking about the difficulty and the confrontation that it was to explore the Brazilian pre-salt [no passado] and it is not different from what we are experiencing today with the equatorial margin”, said Cruz, during the signing ceremony of the contracts of the 1st Cycle of the Permanent Offer in the Oil Production Sharing Regime in the pre-salt layer, in Brasília.

“Due to President Lula’s courage, resilience and articulation capacity at the time, today we are here signing these sharing contracts.”

At the time the pre-salt was discovered, in the first terms of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the country opted to postpone the concession of new exploratory areas while a new exploratory fiscal regime was developed.

In the case of the equatorial margin, there have been intense debates in recent years involving the environmental challenges of the region, where there has been no new exploratory wells since 2015.

In May of this year, Ibama denied Petrobras’ request for an environmental license for drilling in the Foz do Amazonas basin, one of the areas that make up the equatorial margin. The oil company then appealed the decision.

For the environmental agency, authorization depends on carrying out an AAAS (Environmental Assessment of Sedimentary Area), a study that would be the responsibility of the Ministry of Mines and Energy and the Ministry of the Environment, for a broader analysis of the region, in order to assess whether it is fit to be exploited.

At the end of May, the president of Ibama, Rodrigo Agostinho, stated that the region is little studied and, therefore, the environmental impacts are not well detailed in the documentation presented so far.

Cruz also highlighted the country’s prospects of increasing national oil production, which the ministry considers essential for success during the energy transition process in the country.

These plans, however, clash with the need to curb the use of fossil fuels to combat climate change.

According to the International Energy Agency, to reach zero net carbon emissions by 2050, it is essential that no investments are made in new fossil fuel projects. The goal is one of the steps to comply with the Paris Agreement and limit global warming to 1.5°C.

ANP and exploratory advances

Also present at the event, the director general of the oil sector regulator ANP, Rodolfo Saboia, defended the holding of new auctions and also the advancement of exploration in the new exploratory frontiers.

According to him, the autarchy expects that it will be possible to announce a new permanent round of areas for exploration and production of oil and natural gas later this year.

The beginning of the fourth permanent offer cycle “depends only on the expression of interest by interested companies and we have the expectation that this may happen soon”, he said.

“Furthermore, we want to keep increasing production from 2030 onwards. We will also need to seek new exploratory frontiers, this is a strategic choice that society needs to make and the ANP is ready to provide all the necessary information so that this choice is conscious and well informed,” he said.

Ten years after the first pre-salt auction under a production sharing regime, Brazil has failed to confirm new major discoveries so far, and the country’s industry is pressing for new exploratory paths that allow it to keep the production curve on the rise, before it starts to decline in the next decade.