Petrobras President (;), Magda Chambriard, said on Wednesday (4) that the company met all the demands placed by the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama) for oil exploration on the equatorial margin, in Foz do Amazonas Basin. The statement was given during the Brazil Energy Forum, at the Rio de Janeiro State Federation of Industries (Firjan), in downtown Rio de Janeiro.
“We are in a licensing process with Ibama. We deliver all Ibama demand in the last days of November. We are building the Fauna Rehabilitation Center in Oiapoque, which should be ready now in March, ”said the Petrobras president.
“All answers to the demands are in the report we deliver on November 27th and now we are awaiting Ibama’s assessment of the material.”
The Foz do Amazonas Basin occupies a range in the maritime territory that extends between the Amapá border with French Guiana to where Marajó Bay divides the Pará Costa Archipelago. In the region is the FZA-M-59 Oil Exploratory Block.
The block is part of the so-called equatorial margin, which holds five sedimentary basins: Pará-Maranhão, Barreirinhas, Ceará and Potiguar, besides the mouth of the Amazonas. Petrobras has 16 wells on the new exploratory border, however, it has only authorization from Ibama to drill two of them on the coast of Rio Grande do Norte.
Exploration is criticized by environmentalists, concerned with possible environmental damage. Ibama denied the license to other areas, such as the Foz do Amazonas Basin. Petrobras asked the Institute, linked to the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (MMA), a reconsideration.
