Petrobras delays R$1 billion in environmental compensation – 03/03/2024 – Environment

Petrobras delays the payment of environmental compensation — provided for by law, due to oil exploration activities with great impact — in the amount of R$980 million. The money should be used by conservation units in different regions of Brazil.

A Sheet obtained a list of all compensations that the state-owned company is obliged to make, with details of which projects are pending execution.

The data were provided by ICMBio (Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation), via the Access to Information Law. The federal body is responsible for managing conservation units.

In total, 45 Petrobras projects have pending environmental compensation, according to tables provided by the federal agency.

In the report, the state-owned company says it complies with the legislation and its obligations. “Verification of the legal compliance of its projects is systematically monitored by regulatory bodies”, it states, in a note.

Ibama (Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources), which is the licensing body, defines dates for the start of compensation and, without payment, the values ​​are monetarily updated, which characterizes pending compliance with the obligation. , points out ICMBio.

There is no fixed deadline for payment, but guidance so that the obligation is paid “as quickly as possible”, according to Ibama. “The longer the delay in making payment, the higher the amount to be paid”, explains the agency, in a note.

In the list provided, there are the names of the conservation units defined for receiving amounts, the actions that must be carried out — such as the implementation of the unit itself, land regularization or management plan — and the amounts to be transferred, as defined by the Committee of Federal Environmental Compensation, integrated by Ibama, ICMBio and the Ministry of the Environment.

The terms of commitment relating to compensation totaling R$980 million were not even signed. There were even cases of Petrobras refusing to sign terms, according to ICMBio’s response through the Access Law.

“In projects related to Petrobras, the identified situations of refusal to enter into the TCCA [termo de compromisso de compensação ambiental] by the entrepreneur that occurred during the course of the processes were timely notified to Ibama for the adoption of the applicable legal measures”, said ICMBio.

Petrobras did not formally refuse to pay environmental compensation, but presented administrative and legal appeals against the monetary correction indices adopted over time, says Ibama. There were requests for review of procedures.

The company, in turn, states that it signs the terms of commitment as soon as the documents are made available and that it does not see any pending issues. “Since 2019, terms of commitment have been signed with values ​​exceeding R$500 million.”

Data provided by ICMBio shows that, in addition to the outstanding R$980 million, there is R$1.1 billion in compensation from Petrobras with signed terms of commitment. R$726.4 million has already been deposited.

Still according to the table provided by the body, a process without the signing of a commitment term has the year 2004 as the milestone for the obligation — 20 years ago, therefore. Others have dates from 2006, 2007 and the following years. The most recent are from 2022.

Based on the data provided, the report identified that a significant portion of the compensation due — R$ 259 million, or 26% of the total — would be allocated to conservation units in the Amazon.

The company was notified in 2022 about the existence of 47 compensation processes still open, according to Ibama.

The state-owned company’s questions concerned interest during the use of the Selic rate in monetary correction, which was “pacified” with the definition of the IPCA-E, according to the agency. This change occurred in June 2023 and was communicated to ICMBio in August.

“Since then, Petrobras has been complying with the compensation without further questioning,” said the environmental agency. “The absence of responses to letters [sobre tratativas para assinatura de termos de compromisso]or evasive responses, is considered intentional postponement, delay or refusal, and in these cases administrative resources may be invoked against the entrepreneur.”

Among the measures that can be adopted are denial of new licenses, suspension of current licenses and fines for non-compliance with conditions, Ibama pointed out.

The legislation provides that, in cases of projects with significant environmental impact, there must be support for the implementation and maintenance of conservation units, within the licensing processes. The forecast of these contributions is usually one of the conditions for issuing licenses.

In two attempts by Petrobras to explore oil in the Foz do Amazonas basin, on the Amazon coast, the need for environmental compensation was defined. The region is seen as strategic by the Lula government (PT), which wants exploration in 2024 in the so-called block 59, at a distance from the coast of 160 km to 179 km, in the direction of Oiapoque (AP).

The first project was abandoned for good in 2016, due to an accident during drilling activity in block FZA-4, very close to block 59. For FZA-4, Ibama defined compensation of R$ 140 thousand, the payment of which was postponed for more than nine years.

The money should be allocated to the Cabo Orange National Park, a conservation area for mangroves and floodable fields in the Oiapoque region. Petrobras acted six times to postpone the payment, now scheduled for April — the amount was updated to R$282 thousand.

The current oil exploration project in the Foz do Amazonas basin has a maximum degree of environmental impact, as defined by Ibama. This degree impacts the calculation of compensation, initially defined at R$4.3 million.

The list of projects with pending compensation includes drilling in the Campos basin, covering the period from 2000 to 2008 and from 2014 to 2021. According to Petrobras, this basin accounts for 30% of national oil and gas production.

The project leads in outstanding compensation amounts: R$151.2 million. According to information from ICMBio, the obligations were defined in 2015, with resource allocations planned for the Ipanema National Forest (SP), the Nascentes Geraizeiras reserve (MG) and two extractive reserves (resex) —Arapixi and Ituxi— in Amazonas.

The money should consolidate the implementation of one unit and the land regularization of the others. The preserved biomes, in these cases, are the Atlantic Forest, Cerrado and Amazon, respectively.

The process with the oldest date for defining compensation concerns the flow of oil from the Marlim field, in the Campos basin. The compensation amounts to R$8.3 million and is intended for the Lençóis Maranhenses (MA), Serra da Bocaina (between RJ and SP) and Serra dos Órgãos (RJ) National Parks.

Cabo Orange, in Amapá, is mentioned in three compensation proposals still pending, totaling R$6.9 million. The allocation to the park relating to the attempt to drill a well in the Foz do Amazonas basin, in the amount of R$ 282 thousand, already appears in the table of projects with signed terms of commitment.