Petrobras will insist on drilling at Foz do Amazonas – 05/06/2023 – Environment

Petrobras intends to file a new request for an environmental license to drill an oil well in the Foz do Amazonas basin if Ibama (Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources) maintains the denial of the request already made.

If the new request is necessary, the state-owned company will also ask the ANP (National Petroleum Agency) for an extension of the deadline to drill the well, which today is until August 2024.

Last month, Ibama denied a request by the oil company on the grounds that there were problems with the state-owned company’s project. Petrobras changed the points listed by the environmental agency and made a request for reconsideration.

The denial opened a crisis in the government, which is divided over the project. With the negative, the leader of the government in the Senate, Randolfe Rodrigues (No party-AP), in favor of exploration in the deep waters off the coast of Amapá, left the Network, party of the Minister of the Environment, Marina Silva.

Petrobras’ priority plan is still to obtain authorization to drill and analyze the feasibility of commercial exploitation of the well at the site.

To this end, the state-owned company increased a recovery point for fauna and flora affected by oil spills in Oiapoque (AP) and changed flight routes to minimize aircraft noise problems for traditional communities in the region.

Pending approval from the government, Petrobras should demobilize this week the rig that is at the drilling site as required by Ibama. It will head to the Southeast, where the state-owned company plans to drill two wells with the same equipment.

There is no deadline for Ibama’s response and a reversal in sending the probe to another region will only happen if the body gives a positive response by this Friday (9).

The rig where it is today costs Petrobras BRL 3.4 million a day. In all, the company has already spent R$ 1.2 billion on the project involving the commercial exploitation of oil in the Foz do Amazonas Basin.

The Foz do Amazonas Basin entered Petrobras’ radar after giant oil discoveries in Guyana and Suriname, which made the Brazilian equatorial margin more promising — a set of five sedimentary basins that extends over 2,200 km, from Rio Grande do Norte to Amapá.