The president (PT) confirmed to Amazonas politicians this Tuesday (12) that the government is in favor of oil prospecting at the mouth of the Amazon River, in the region of the so-called “Equatorial Margin” for which Ibama has successively denied environmental licensing.
According to him, Petrobras is collecting all possible data to answer the questions asked by the environmental authority. The main obstacle, among many, is still how the state-owned company would deal with a possible oil spill in the area.
“The president said he will also carry out this important work. We are losing a lot of oil to French Guiana, which is absorbing this oil. This is just one field”, said senator Omaz Aziz (PSD-AM) after the meeting.
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The meeting took place outside the official agenda and was also attended by the mayor of Manaus, David Almeida (Avante-AM), senator Eduardo Braga (MDB-AM) and minister Alexandre Padilha (Institutional Relations).
The confirmation of the claim, despite Ibama’s successive denials, occurs amid the COP-29 in Azerbaijan, in which Brazil advocates a leading role in the fight against climate change and a broad reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
Lula would participate in the summit, but avoided traveling due to medical recommendations following the domestic accident he suffered last month at Palácio da Alvorada. A.
“He just said that the studies are taking place and that the government must license the area to be able to carry out exploration and research prospects in the equatorial region”, added Braga.
“We talked about important projects for the people of Amazonas and the partnership with the federal government in the new mandate,” said the president on social media.
One of Lula’s main allegations to contest Ibama’s denials is that the test well for oil exploration is 530 kilometers away from the mouth of the Amazon River itself. “If exploring this oil causes problems for the Amazon, it will certainly not be explored. But I find it difficult, because it is 530 km away from the Amazon. But I can only know when I get there,” he said in a radio interview CBN in May.
At the time, he stated that the contradiction is not that Brazil preaches an environmentally sustainable economy while searching for more fossil fuel, but rather that it does not use oil money to pay for it.
Petrobras plans, in its investment plan, to inject US$3.1 billion to drill 16 oil exploration wells in the Equatorial Margin, between Amapá and Rio Grande do Norte by the year 2028.
In the case of the mouth of the Amazon River, it includes a new structure in Oiapoque (AP), which would provide faster response to possible accidents.
