License comes after months of dispute between the oil and gas sector and environmental groups, and was granted just over two weeks before COP-30, the UN climate conference to be hosted by Brazil, in Belém
The license granted by Petrobras to drill an exploratory well in Foz do Amazonas, announced this Monday (20), provoked a strong reaction from environmentalists and civil society organizations, who classified the decision as “sabotage”.
The authorization comes after months of dispute between the oil and gas sector and environmental groups, and was granted just over two weeks before UN climate conference that will be hosted by Brazil, in Belém. Entities have already announced that they intend to take legal action to reverse the decision.
In a statement, the company stated that the drilling is exclusively exploratory in nature and aims to “obtain geological information and assess whether there is oil and gas in the area on an economic scale”, highlighting that “there is no oil production at this stage”. The president of the state-owned company, Magda Chambriard, celebrated the decision as an “achievement for Brazilian society” and highlighted the company’s commitment to national development. “The institutions demonstrated maturity by enabling projects that can represent the country’s growth,” he stated.
For environmentalists, however, the measure contradicts the government’s climate discourse. “It’s a double sabotage,” said Suely Araújo, public policy coordinator at the Climate Observatory and former president of Ibama. “On the one hand, the Brazilian government acts against humanity, betting on more global warming. On the other hand, it hinders COP-30 itself, which should be marked by the commitment to the gradual elimination of fossil fuels”, he added.
Climatologist Carlos Nobre, co-president of the Scientific Panel for the Amazon, also criticized the decision, stating that “there is no justification for any new oil exploration”. According to him, the Amazon is approaching a point of no return, and the increase in emissions could accelerate the collapse of the biome.
The dispute over exploration in the Equatorial Margin — a coastal strip that runs from Rio Grande do Norte to Amapá — had been dividing the government itself. Ibama technicians recommended rejecting the project last year, but President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva had already expressed support for the exploration and even criticized the environmental agency for the delay in analyzing the request, calling it “nonsense”. The granting of the license now exposes the government to international questions and is expected to dominate the climate debates at COP-30, where Brazil intends to assert itself as a global leader on the environmental agenda.
*With information from Estadão content
