Petrobras plans to explore the Foz do Amazonas basin in 2024 – 10/11/2023 – Environment

The president of Petrobras, Jean Paul Prates, stated this Wednesday (11) that the state-owned company hopes to receive in 2024 a license to drill a well in search of oil in the Foz do Amazonas basin, the target of a clash between the energy and environmental areas of the state. government.

“We have every expectation that, in the first half of next year, or later throughout the year, we will head towards Amapá”, he stated, at an event on energy transition sponsored by Petrobras itself and BNDES (National Bank for Economic Development). and Social).

The state-owned company was denied its first request to drill on the coast of Amapá, an area that does not yet produce oil and is considered highly environmentally sensitive. The company appealed the denial, but Ibama (Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources) has not yet responded.

In another licensing request for the region on the so-called equatorial margin, Ibama authorized the drilling of wells in the Potiguar basin, on the coast of Rio Grande do Norte, an area that already has oil production.

The authorization was celebrated by the government as a step towards allowing exploration along the entire margin, but the government’s environmental department defends the need for a broader environmental assessment to evaluate the activity in areas that are still virgin.

At this Monday’s seminar, BNDES reinforced the defense of oil exploration on the equatorial margin. “It is perhaps the last great oil frontier that we have,” said the president of the state bank, Aloizio Mercadante.

He argued that Petrobras is capable of exploring the region “in complete safety” and that “we need to discover new reserves, with all due respect to Ibama.” “Let’s be together [com a Petrobras] on the equatorial margin”, he concluded.

Prates and Mercadante reinforced the argument of the “just energy transition”, used by the oil industry in the defense that resources from the exploration of the equatorial margin are necessary to finance investments in the transition to renewable energy.

They also agreed with government participation resources to preserve the forest, although changes in the allocation of oil royalties require legislative processes.

Prates also claims that the drilling of a first well does not necessarily mean that the coast of Amapá will have oil production. Before that, he said, any discoveries need to be scaled with new wells.

“And Brazil will need to make a decision, after confirming the reserve, whether it wants to produce or not,” he continued. “If it doesn’t happen now, it won’t happen again. And if it doesn’t happen to Petrobras, it won’t happen to anyone else.”