Brazil reaffirms confidence to explore oil in front of the mouth of the Amazon River

He Brazilian government reaffirmed this Saturday his confidence that Petrobras will receive the license to explore oil in front of the mouth of the Amazon Riveran area considered vulnerable, after the oil company received authorization to drill in two nearby areas.

The confidence was expressed by the Minister of Mines and Energy, Alexandre Silveirain a statement in which he celebrated the decision of the Brazilian Institute of Environment (IBAMA) to grant to Petrobras the respective environmental licenses to carry out exploratory drilling in a deep water region of the Potiguar marine basin.

This basin is located off the coast of the state of Rio Grande do Norte (northeast Brazil) and, together with the region in front of the mouth of the Amazonis part of the so-called Equatorial Margin, an exploitation horizon in the Atlantic Ocean in which Petrobras It is estimated that there are enormous reserves of hydrocarbons.

”From now on, I am certain that Ibama technicians will be able to dedicate themselves, with even more effort, to advancing studies on the necessary conditions for drilling in the Equatorial Margin also off the coast of the state of Amapá (at the mouth of the Amazon),” said Silveira, quoted in the statement.

According to the minister, after meeting the required environmental requirements, Petrobras received on Friday “the first environmental license to drill exploratory wells in the Equatorial Margin,” although specifically in the Potiguar Basin, where it is estimated that there are reserves of 2,000 million barrels of raw.

For Silveira, the oil company demonstrated that it can explore the region without environmental risks, which also extends to the Equatorial Margin area closest to the mouth of the Amazon.

Despite stating that it intends to initiate a rapid energy transition and replace fossil fuels, the progressive Government Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva It alleges that it first needs to exploit the possible enormous reserves existing in the region to finance this process and reduce its inequalities.

Last May, Ibama denied the only permit that Petrobras needed to explore the crude oil deposits that are believed to exist in front of the mouth of the Amazonarguing “worrying inconsistencies of high socio-environmental vulnerability for safe operation in the new exploratory frontier,” but the oil company is waiting for the response to the resources it presented.

While environmentalists and scientists criticize exploitation in the vulnerable region, the Government defends the state company’s right to explore a large area, “perhaps the last oil and gas frontier before the consolidation of the energy transition.”

The Equatorial Margin area close to the mouth of the Amazon It is considered a promising hydrocarbon reserve, where Guyana and Suriname have already discovered deposits with reserves of up to 13,000 million barrels of crude oil.

Petrobras estimates that the exploitation horizon in that area can yield 14,000 million barrels of oil and alleges that the well closest to the mouth of the Amazon It is located 500 kilometers and 2,880 meters deep.

For Ibama, the mouth of the Amazon is considered a region of “extreme socio-environmental sensitivity” because it is home to environmental reserves, indigenous territories, mangroves, coral reefs, as well as a varied marine diversity with species in danger of extinction, such as the gray dolphin and the Manatee.

(With information from EFE)