Lula does not rule out exploring oil at the mouth of the Amazon – 05/22/2023 – Environment

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) said he does not see, at least for now, a negative effect on the Amazon from oil exploration at the mouth of the Amazon River. “It’s on the high seas,” said the PT member this Monday (22), in Hiroshima, Japan, where he participated as a guest at the G7 meeting.

“If exploring this oil is a problem for the Amazon, it will certainly not be explored, but I think it is difficult, because it is 530 kilometers away from the Amazon.” He added, however, that he will only decide when he is back in Brazil. “I can only know when it arrives [ao país].”

Last Wednesday (17), Ibama (Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources) denied Petrobras’ request to drill the basin at the mouth of the Amazon River with the aim of exploring for oil in the region.

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

In response, Petrobras stated that “all 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”.

Ibama’s decision divided the government.

Once the refusal was announced, the leader of the Lula government in the National Congress, Randolfe Rodrigues, decided to leave the Network, the party of the Minister of the Environment, Marina Silva. He is one of the supporters of the project.

There were also repercussions within the government. The Minister of Mines and Energy, Alexandre Silveira, defended that the company should not give up, reiterating the request to Ibama, “making all the necessary efforts to meet the conditions and prove the suitability of the project for the safe and sustainable prospecting of the area”.

The state-owned company, in turn, announced this Friday (19) that it is analyzing the appeal of Silveira’s portfolio and that “it remains committed to the development of the Brazilian equatorial margin, recognizing the importance of new frontiers to ensure the country’s energy security and the resources necessary for a just and sustainable energy transition”.