Ibama denies request for oil exploration in the Amazon – 05/17/2023 – Environment

The president of Ibama (Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources), Rodrigo Agostinho, accompanied the body’s technical opinion and denied this Wednesday (17) a request made by Petrobras to drill the basin at the mouth of the Amazon River with the aim of to explore for oil in the region.

The decision was taken after Ibama showed concern about the oil company’s activities in a region of socio-environmental vulnerability.

“There is no doubt that Petrobras was offered every opportunity to remedy critical points of its project, but that it still presents worrying inconsistencies for the safe operation in a new exploratory frontier of high socio-environmental vulnerability”, says Agostinho in the document.

The initial drilling was the target of pressure from Petrobras, the Ministry of Mines and Energy and even the leader of the government in Congress, Randolfe Rodrigues (Rede-AP), who is from the state where the company intended to drill is located.

As shown to Sheethowever, Ibama had already indicated that there was a lack of studies to prove that drilling, even if initial and for studies, had no environmental impact.

Ibama specifically pointed out the lack of the so-called Environmental Assessment of the Sedimentary Area (AAAS). Petrobras argues that the study is not mandatory and that it has filed others that demonstrate the viability of the undertaking.

But the opinion mentions the absence of the AAAS as an important obstacle for the license, since the potential impact of the undertaking is great and that the analysis would be relevant since it is a new front for the exploration of Brazilian natural resources —this would be the first since such activity would be released in the region.

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.

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, the oil exploration rights in the block were transferred to Petrobras, which had the license request definitively denied this Wednesday.

It is the second refusal for drilling activities in the region — in 2018, Ibama denied the issuance of licenses for five blocks under the control of the company Total.

The exploration of the mouth of the Amazon was considered by environmentalists as one of the undertakings with the greatest potential impact in the country today, along with the paving of BR-319 —the highway that crosses the Amazon— and Ferrogrão (a railroad project that aims to transport the production of grains in the Midwest by ports in the North region).

After the denial was announced, the Climate Observatory, a network of entities dedicated to the climate agenda, stated in a note that Ibama’s decision protects a virtually unknown ecosystem and maintains the coherence of the Lula government.

“Ibama’s president acted technically and correctly, but the decision in this case gives rise to a broader debate on the role of oil in the country’s future. The moment is to establish a timetable for the elimination of fossil fuels and accelerate the just transition for oil exporting countries, like Brazil, and not to open a new exploration frontier”, says Suely Araújo, senior specialist in public policies at the entity and former president of Ibama.

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