Foz do Amazonas: Ibama says decision will be made in 2024 – 11/22/2023 – Environment

The president of Ibama (Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Natural Resources), Rodrigo Agostinho, stated this Wednesday (22) that the agency’s response to Petrobras’ request to drill and prospect for oil in the Foz do Amazonas basin should come out at the beginning of 2024.

Agostinho participated in a meeting with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) at Palácio do Planalto, alongside the Minister of the Environment, Marina Silva, secretaries of the department and representatives of the different Brazilian biomes.

The meeting was requested by Lula himself, to mainly align the Brazilian position on combating environmental crimes, on the eve of COP28, in the United Arab Emirates. One of the points of discussion were plans against deforestation in Brazilian biomes

Agostinho’s speech about the drilling of Foz do Amazonas occurred when he was questioned by journalists, after the meeting.

“The team [do Ibama] is analysing. There is no conclusion yet. The team has now completed several licensing processes, most of them for Petrobras. Today, there are more than one hundred Petrobras processes being processed with Ibama”, stated Agostinho.

“Ibama is doing priority work in relation to this. And, probably, at the beginning of the year, we will have some response related to this specific request, which is lot 059, located in the region known as Foz do Amazonas. We still We don’t have a conclusion on this, we know that Petrobras continues to carry out studies”, he added.

The issue of prospecting for oil in the region has been causing a division in the Lula government for more than six months. The possibility of advancing studies in the area puts the wing most linked to the Environment on one side and, on the other, the political wing and also the Ministry of Mines and Energy.

In May, Agostinho followed the agency’s technical opinion and denied the license for Petrobras to drill block 59 of the Foz do Amazonas basin.

The decision was taken after Ibama demonstrated concern about the oil company’s activities in a region of socio-environmental vulnerability. There was a lack of studies proving that oil exploration will not have an environmental impact, according to Ibama.

Petrobras subsequently requested reconsideration of the decision, sending a series of new documents and studies on the issue. He presented, for example, the proposal to increase the number of ferries in the region, to mitigate the impact of a possible spill.

At the request of the Ministry of Mines and Energy, AGU (Attorney General’s Office) concluded in August a legal opinion that paved the way for the government to move forward with studies and the resulting oil exploration in the Foz do Amazonas region.

The lawyer, in the document, concludes that it is not mandatory to carry out an AAAS (environmental assessment of a sedimentary area) to issue a drilling license in block 59 of the basin.

Minister Marina Silva, on the other hand, stated, days after issuing the opinion, that the AAAS is not a condition for the release of the license and that the evaluation of Petrobras’ request will follow technical criteria.

“Ibama never said it was [condicionante]. He said it is a planning tool that certainly helps with the licensing processes. I can do it with a magnified lens, looking at the developments in the basin [da Foz do Amazonas]”, said the minister, during a hearing in the Senate.

Regarding the conversation with the president this Wednesday (22), Marina Silva said that Brazil will maintain its position of taking to the COP the commitment to limit global warming to 1.5°C.

“Brazil is going to COP28 at 1.5°C, not a bit more, in relation to the change in the Earth’s temperature”, said the minister, to journalists, in reference to the goal of the Paris Agreement.

The government states that it will also maintain a just transition agenda, which takes into account the needs of developing countries.

Marina also said that the plan to combat environmental crimes in the cerrado, called PPCerrado, is now ready to be launched and reinforced the intention to declare a climate emergency in 1,038 municipalities in Brazil.