Foz do Amazonas: Petrobras appeals after refusal by Ibama – 05/18/2023 – Environment

Petrobras will appeal Ibama’s denial of oil exploration at the mouth of the Amazon. The environmental agency’s decision on drilling the basin was taken on Wednesday night (17) by the president of Ibama, Rodrigo Agostinho.

The company said, this Thursday afternoon (18), that it has not yet been officially notified by the institute, and that it will forward the appeal on the environmental licensing process for block FZA-M-59.

Ibama’s justification for denying the oil company’s request was the lack of information in the project. “This still presents worrying inconsistencies for the safe operation in a new exploratory frontier of high socio-environmental vulnerability”, said Agostinho in the document.

Petrobras says it met all of Ibama’s requirements in Amapá and Pará for the assessment.

“All the resources mobilized in Amapá and Pará to carry out the Pre-Operational Assessment (simulated to test emergency response plans) were made strictly in compliance with Ibama decisions and approvals”, says the company, in a note.

Pressure for the project came from Petrobras, the Ministry of Mines and Energy and even the leader of the government in Congress, Randolfe Rodrigues, who joined the Network, party of the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Marina Silva, after losing the dispute by perforation.

“It is undeniable that it has a very high environmental, symbolic and political impact”, said the minister about the project on Monday (15), during a seminar organized by the Sheet.

Ibama states that the region of the basin at the mouth of the Amazon is of extreme socio-environmental sensitivity as it is home to conservation units, indigenous lands, mangroves and great marine biodiversity.

According to the agency, the area is home to endangered species such as gray dolphin, red dolphin, sperm whale, fin whale, manatee, Amazonian manatee and tracajá.

“Petrobras reaffirms that the drilling of the well object of this license is located at a distance of 175 kilometers from the coast of Amapá and more than 500 kilometers away from the mouth of the Amazon River”, says the company’s note.

The environmental licensing process for block FZA-M-59 began on April 4, 2014, at the request of BP Energy do Brasil, the company originally responsible for the project. In December 2020, oil exploration rights in the block were transferred to Petrobras.

Wednesday’s denial is the second for a project in the region. The first took place in 2018, following a license request for five blocks under the control of Total.

_{The Planeta em Transe project is supported by the Open Society Foundations.}