In Maranhão, new ‘pre-salt’ threatens coral reef – 06/23/2023 – Environment

The possibility of exploring 20 to 30 billion barrels of oil 250 km off the coast of São Luís, a bet by Petrobras, the government of Maranhão and businessmen, comes up against the largest coral reef formation in South America, the Parcel de Manuel Luis.

State park and nursery of several endemic and endangered species, the parcel is one of the most exuberant reef environments in South America. Oil exploration also jeopardizes the largest continuous line of mangroves on the planet, which runs from Amapá to Maranhão.

The “environmental unfeasibility of undertakings that pose risks of oiling the coast of Pará and Maranhão and Parcel Manuel Luís” motivated Ibama (Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources) to recommend, in December 2019, the removal of eight blocks of the Pará-Maranhão basin from the 17th Bidding Round of the ANP (National Petroleum Agency).

The risks were reaffirmed in February 2020, in a joint statement by the MME (Ministry of Mines and Energy) and the MMA (Ministry of the Environment). The decision remains in force until the completion of more detailed environmental studies and the issuance of the environmental opinion of the basin’s blocks. But the lobby for oil exploration continues.

Allan Kardec Duailibe Barros Filho, president of Gasmar (Companhia Maranhense de Gás) and the main articulator of the Maranhão government on the issue, questions Ibama’s decision.

“The possibility of leakage, considering Brazil’s history in this exploration phase, is zero. There never was. Brazil’s environmental laws are too strict. Today, no company dares to dream of having a leak, because their actions collapse. This story is a narrative that one tries to impose”, he says.

That’s not what the professor at Uece (State University of Ceará) Alexandre Costa says.

“Every oil operation produces huge imbalances. There is no oil operation without risks”, says Costa.

The scientist explains that, contrary to what Kardec says, imbalances manifest themselves right away in prospecting, that is, in the study phases for identifying submerged oil. “The use of techniques such as seismic, for example, affects animals that depend on echolocation, and this destabilizes a set of lives that depend on it”, he says.

Professor at Ufma (Federal University of Maranhão) and former director of ANP, Kardec led the scientific study, supported by Fiema (Federation of Industries of the State of Maranhão) and released in January 2021, which “indicated the possibility of the existence of 20 -30 billion barrels of oil in Risked Recoverable Prospective Resources (SPE/WPC definition)”.

The note “A new ‘pre-salt’ in Arco Norte of Brazilian territory”, which brought the results of the study, also stated that, “in case of any oil spill (minimum probability for an exploratory well)”, there would be no contamination of the mangroves of Amapá and Pará, “since the north Brazilian current is very strong and would carry any floating material to a vortex located in the middle of the equatorial Atlantic Ocean”.

A dangerous argument in the view of Jorge Nunes, professor at Ufma and doctor in oceanography. “This current is shallow, but how does it work at the bottom of the sea? Are there other circulation patterns?”, he asks. “Alone, the current will not be enough to free the largest continuous line of mangroves on the planet. [que fica na mesma costa].”

Nursery of 53 endangered species

Created by State Decree No. 11,902, of June 11, 1991, with 45,237.9 hectares, the Parcel de Manuel Luís State Park is vital for the survival of 53 endangered species in the Pará-Maranhão basin, more than twice the number of registered species. in the Amazon basin (27 species).

At least 25% of these species are categorized as critically endangered (13 in total), 15% as endangered (8) and 60% as vulnerable (32).

In an interview with Agência Pública, the superintendent of Biodiversity and Protected Areas at Sema (State Secretary for the Environment), Laís de Morais Rêgo Silva, however, denied any risk to the park due to possible oil exploration.

“There are only two blocks available for auction that are closer together, but with a certain distance”, says the manager.

According to her, the installation of undertakings of this type is subject to environmental impact studies with modeling for possible oil spills, “which do not even exist yet”.

Costa, a postdoctoral fellow in atmospheric sciences, points out, however, that the expansion of fossil fuel production (oil) further accelerates global warming, which could be lethal for the entire set of coral reefs that today make up the equatorial margin Brazilian heritage is essential for the preservation of marine life.

“This could have very serious consequences for marine life, and not just that, because we know the number of human lives that depend on marine life, through fishing, community tourism”, he says.

This report was produced by Agência Pública and originally published here. The work is the result of Microbolsas Petroleum and Climate Change, carried out by Agência Pública in partnership with WWF-Brasil. The 16th edition of the contest selected journalists to investigate exploration blocks in the Amazon region and their socio-environmental impacts.