Ibama changes understanding of simulation at the mouth of the Amazon – News of Brazil
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Ibama technicians opined for the rejection and filing of the request for a drilling license at the mouth of the Amazon, on the coast of Amapá, without Petrobras being able to carry out a Pre-Operational Assessment (APO) beforehand – a procedure that simulates the response to an emergency in the region , like a leak.
The conclusions of the Ibama technical team were contested internally by the head of the Environmental Licensing Board (Dilic), Régis Fontana, who suggested that the APO be made before the final decision on whether or not to advance the license application – the last word is up to the president, Rodrigo Agostinho.
Foz do Amazonas: understand what is at stake in the new oil exploration frontier
This is not an exceptionality of the project. The APO is part of the licensing application process and has been discussed at the mouth of the Amazon since 2017, initially by bp, before Petrobras took over the contract for block FZA-M-59, in 2020.
In the following year, the company began to meet the demands made by Ibama so that the simulation could go off the ground, in line with the established schedule. The initial forecast was to carry out the simulation in August 2022, the schedule was even approved by the environmental authority, but there were logistical difficulties and demands for improvements.
During the preparation phase, hiring, adjustments to the original scope, infrastructure investments and other adjustments were made. In February 2023, once the requirements were met, Petrobras finally requested that the simulation be scheduled for the following month, which did not happen.
opposing views
In several documents issued during the process of analysis of the licensing application, the environmental agency addressed issues of environmental and climate policy and the proposal to carry out the strategic assessment, endorsed by the Minister of the Environment, Marina Silva (Rede). These are decisions for the government.
There are, therefore, two points of view: Dilic recommends carrying out the simulation; the technicians, in turn, ask for the project to be archived.
A former director of the body, heard under reservation by epbr, says that Ibama itself had already established, in recent years, the guidelines and deadlines for the simulation to be carried out.
He also stated that the APO would be a pragmatic act, in order to allow the state-owned company to correct flaws pointed out by the technical area. “There has been a change in attitude,” he commented.
The opposite thesis to Ibama’s opinion, therefore, is that the simulation has the objective of subsidizing the response plan and there would be no reason to prevent the exercise.
What does Ibama say today?
Technicians claim that the PPAF (Fauna Protection Plan), one of the components of the PEI (Individual Emergency Plan), “it is not able to be approved in its conceptual version, so there is no recommendation to carry out the Pre-Operational Assessment”.
The conclusion is contained in the last technical report sent to Agostinho’s office, on April 20.
The report maintains that, if the exploratory activity causes an oil spill, there is “remote possibility of rescue and rehabilitation of the fauna” and, consequently, “the probable loss of impacted biodiversity”.
That is, based on the premise that there is no risk of oil touching the Brazilian coast, as indicated by the dispersion modeling studies presented by Petrobras, the pending issue is the response time. This information is contained in public and restricted documents obtained by epbr.
The distance between Belém (PA), base of operation, and the location of the well to be drilled “reflects the logistical difficulties encountered in the region, which does not have a support infrastructure for the exploration and production industry”as concluded by Ibama (With information from the epbr Agency)
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