Ibama denies license to Petrobras to drill wells at the mouth of the Amazon

The Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA) rejected Petrobras’ request to carry out offshore drilling activity in the Foz do Amazonas basin, the so-called block FZA-M-59. According to the agency, the decision, taken yesterday (17), occurs “due to the set of technical inconsistencies” for the safe operation in a new exploratory area.

The understanding of the technical team that prepared the opinion on the request says that Petrobras lacked an environmental assessment of the sedimentary area (AAAS) that allows identifying areas where it would not be possible to carry out oil and gas extraction and production activities due to the serious associated environmental risks and impacts.

The environmental licensing process for block FZA-M-59 began on April 4, 2014, at the request of BP Energy do Brasil, the company originally responsible for the project. In December 2020, oil exploration rights in the block were transferred to Petrobras.

By following the opinion and rejecting the request, the president of Ibama, Rodrigo Agostinho, said that there was no lack of opportunities for the company to remedy critical points of the project.

“The absence of AAAS makes expressively difficult the manifestation regarding the environmental viability of the activity, considering that no studies were carried out that evaluated the suitability of the areas, as well as the suitability of the region, of notorious socio-environmental sensitivity, for the installation of the oil production chain “, he said.

In a note, Petrobras stated that it was surprised by the decision and that the conditions originally placed by Ibama were fully met. The company also stated that the agency had recognized that there was no legal basis for charging environmental assessments as a condition for issuing the operating license for drilling.

The company also said that, in September 2022, Ibama signaled that the only pending issue for carrying out the pre-operational assessment would be the presentation of the operating license for the Fauna Rehabilitation Center in Belém and inspections of the drilling rig and vessels of support.

According to the note, Ibama inspected and approved the depetrolization and fauna rehabilitation center in February 2023. Petrobras also said that the response time for assisting the fauna, in the event of a leak, meets the requirements established in the Good Practices Manual for the management of fauna affected by oil from IBAMA and that the license in question is restricted to the drilling of a well with the objective of verifying the “existence or not of an oil deposit on the Equatorial Margin”.

“Therefore, only after drilling this well will the potential of the asset, the existence and profile of any deposit be confirmed. Petrobras only applied for the license to drill the well and, for that, presented all the necessary studies and projects. In case of confirmation of the potential of the reserve, another licensing process will be carried out”, says the note.