Oil drilling challenge near mouth of Amazon River turned down by Brazil’s environmental regulator
RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazil’s environmental regulator has turned down a license for a controversial offshore oil drilling project close to the mouth of the Amazon River that had drawn sturdy opposition from activists who warned of its possible for harmful the place.
The agency’s president, Rodrigo Agostinho, highlighted environmental fears in saying the final decision Wednesday night to transform down the state-operate oil enterprise Petrobras’ request to drill the FZA-M-59 block. He cited “a group of technical inconsistencies” in the firm’s application.
With Brazil’s existing creation established to peak in coming a long time, Petrobras has sought to secure extra reserves off Brazil’s northern coastline. The company earmarked almost 50 % its 5-year, $6 billion exploration budget for the area, and in a assertion Thursday explained it would file an official ask for that the final decision be reconsidered.
CEO Jean Paul Prates experienced mentioned that the very first properly would be non permanent and that the corporation has hardly ever recorded a leak in offshore drilling. The organization unsuccessful to encourage the environmental agency.
“There is no doubt that Petrobras was supplied each option to remedy important factors of its task, but that it continue to presents worrisome inconsistencies for the risk-free operation in a new exploratory frontier with large socioenvironmental vulnerability,” Agostinho wrote in his determination.
The one of a kind and biodiverse area is property to very little-analyzed swaths of mangroves and a coral reef, and activists and experts had said the project risked leaks that could be carried widely by tides and imperil the delicate environment.
Eighty civil modern society and environmental organizations, which includes WWF Brasil and Greenpeace, had termed for the license to be turned down pending an in-depth review.
Caetano Scannavino, coordinator of Health and fitness and Contentment, an Amazon non-profit team that supports sustainable initiatives in the Tapajos basin, congratulated Agostinho on Twitter “for not succumbing to strain, inquiring for much more scientific studies, and prioritizing science in the provider of the collective.”
“It is a sensitive, minimal-researched location, and there’s no way back again for any miscalculation there,” Scannavino added. “Not to point out the government’s guarantee of a decarbonized potential.”
The Local weather Observatory, a network of environmental non-income, also cheered the decision, saying in a statement that “Agostinho is guarding a almost unknown ecosystem and maintains the coherence of the Lula authorities, which has promised in its discourse to be guided by the battle towards the weather crisis.”
During the to start with presidential terms of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, from 2003 to 2010, substantial offshore discoveries turned a means of financing wellness, schooling and welfare courses. Some members of his Workers’ Occasion continue to see oil as a implies to guarantee social development.
Strength Minister Alexandre Silveira reported in March that the spot is the “passport to the future” for improvement in Brazil’s northern region. In his prior conditions, Lula made use of the exact same phrase to describe the offshore oil discoveries in an space regarded as pre-salt.
But Lula has strived to reveal the environmental awakening he has been through in the yrs due to the fact, with security of the Amazon a fixture in his campaign very last yr to unseat Jair Bolsonaro and return to the presidency.
Activists and industry experts had warned that acceptance for the offshore oil challenge could threaten the pure earth, but also dent Lula’s newfound impression as an environmental defender.
The system to receive an environmental license for the FZA-M-59 block commenced in 2014, at the request of BP Strength do Brasil. Exploration rights had been transferred to Petrobras in 2020.
Suely Araújo, a previous head of the environment company and now a general public policy specialist with the Local climate Observatory, said Agostinho manufactured the appropriate connect with not just for the distinct venture, but also for the nation.
“The selection in this situation presents trigger for a broader discussion about the position of oil in the country’s upcoming. It is time to create a calendar to do away with fossil fuels and accelerate the just changeover for oil exporting nations, such as Brazil, and not open a new exploration frontier,” Araújo said in a statement. “Those who rest now dreaming of oil prosperity have a tendency to wake up tomorrow with a stranded asset, or an ecological catastrophe, or each.”
Not all of Lula’s allies have been happy. Sen. Randolfe Rodrigues, a member of the Sustainability Community political party and the government’s leader in Congress, said the selection deprives people in his home condition of Amapa from substantially-essential advancement and goes against study done in the state, which is closest to the proposed drilling web-site.
“We will collect alongside one another all individuals who want Amapa’s sustainable growth, so that technically, legally and responsiibly we can battle from this final decision,” Rodrigues wrote on Twitter.
He introduced he would leave the centre-still left social gathering, of which Setting Minister Marina Silva is a primary member. She appointed Agostinho to lead the ecosystem regulator.
In its statement, Petrobras stated it believes it strictly adopted all licensing specifications and highlighted that the proposed drilling, in an spot identified as the Equatorial Margin, was proposed for an space over 500 kilometers (over 300 miles) from the Amazon River’s mouth.
“The firm remains dedicated to the development of the Brazilian Equatorial Margin, recognizing the significance of new frontiers to make certain the country’s power stability and the resources needed for a fair and sustainable power transition,” the assertion mentioned. “To supply Brazil’s long term demand from customers for oil, the nation will have to glance for new resources in addition to the pre-salt.”
Other controversial megaprojects in the Amazon that stay on the desk consist of repaving a freeway that would slice by means of preserved rainforest, development of a key railway for grain transport and renewal of a big hydroelectric dam’s license.
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Affiliated Press author Eléonore Hughes in Rio de Janeiro contributed to this report.
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RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazil’s environmental regulator has turned down a license for a controversial offshore oil drilling project close to the mouth of the Amazon River that had drawn sturdy opposition from activists who warned of its possible for harmful the place.
The agency’s president, Rodrigo Agostinho, highlighted environmental fears in saying the final decision Wednesday night to transform down the state-operate oil enterprise Petrobras’ request to drill the FZA-M-59 block. He cited “a group of technical inconsistencies” in the firm’s application.
With Brazil’s existing creation established to peak in coming a long time, Petrobras has sought to secure extra reserves off Brazil’s northern coastline. The company earmarked almost 50 % its 5-year, $6 billion exploration budget for the area, and in a assertion Thursday explained it would file an official ask for that the final decision be reconsidered.
CEO Jean Paul Prates experienced mentioned that the very first properly would be non permanent and that the corporation has hardly ever recorded a leak in offshore drilling. The organization unsuccessful to encourage the environmental agency.
“There is no doubt that Petrobras was supplied each option to remedy important factors of its task, but that it continue to presents worrisome inconsistencies for the risk-free operation in a new exploratory frontier with large socioenvironmental vulnerability,” Agostinho wrote in his determination.
The one of a kind and biodiverse area is property to very little-analyzed swaths of mangroves and a coral reef, and activists and experts had said the project risked leaks that could be carried widely by tides and imperil the delicate environment.
Eighty civil modern society and environmental organizations, which includes WWF Brasil and Greenpeace, had termed for the license to be turned down pending an in-depth review.
Caetano Scannavino, coordinator of Health and fitness and Contentment, an Amazon non-profit team that supports sustainable initiatives in the Tapajos basin, congratulated Agostinho on Twitter “for not succumbing to strain, inquiring for much more scientific studies, and prioritizing science in the provider of the collective.”
“It is a sensitive, minimal-researched location, and there’s no way back again for any miscalculation there,” Scannavino added. “Not to point out the government’s guarantee of a decarbonized potential.”
The Local weather Observatory, a network of environmental non-income, also cheered the decision, saying in a statement that “Agostinho is guarding a almost unknown ecosystem and maintains the coherence of the Lula authorities, which has promised in its discourse to be guided by the battle towards the weather crisis.”
During the to start with presidential terms of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, from 2003 to 2010, substantial offshore discoveries turned a means of financing wellness, schooling and welfare courses. Some members of his Workers’ Occasion continue to see oil as a implies to guarantee social development.
Strength Minister Alexandre Silveira reported in March that the spot is the “passport to the future” for improvement in Brazil’s northern region. In his prior conditions, Lula made use of the exact same phrase to describe the offshore oil discoveries in an space regarded as pre-salt.
But Lula has strived to reveal the environmental awakening he has been through in the yrs due to the fact, with security of the Amazon a fixture in his campaign very last yr to unseat Jair Bolsonaro and return to the presidency.
Activists and industry experts had warned that acceptance for the offshore oil challenge could threaten the pure earth, but also dent Lula’s newfound impression as an environmental defender.
The system to receive an environmental license for the FZA-M-59 block commenced in 2014, at the request of BP Strength do Brasil. Exploration rights had been transferred to Petrobras in 2020.
Suely Araújo, a previous head of the environment company and now a general public policy specialist with the Local climate Observatory, said Agostinho manufactured the appropriate connect with not just for the distinct venture, but also for the nation.
“The selection in this situation presents trigger for a broader discussion about the position of oil in the country’s upcoming. It is time to create a calendar to do away with fossil fuels and accelerate the just changeover for oil exporting nations, such as Brazil, and not open a new exploration frontier,” Araújo said in a statement. “Those who rest now dreaming of oil prosperity have a tendency to wake up tomorrow with a stranded asset, or an ecological catastrophe, or each.”
Not all of Lula’s allies have been happy. Sen. Randolfe Rodrigues, a member of the Sustainability Community political party and the government’s leader in Congress, said the selection deprives people in his home condition of Amapa from substantially-essential advancement and goes against study done in the state, which is closest to the proposed drilling web-site.
“We will collect alongside one another all individuals who want Amapa’s sustainable growth, so that technically, legally and responsiibly we can battle from this final decision,” Rodrigues wrote on Twitter.
He introduced he would leave the centre-still left social gathering, of which Setting Minister Marina Silva is a primary member. She appointed Agostinho to lead the ecosystem regulator.
In its statement, Petrobras stated it believes it strictly adopted all licensing specifications and highlighted that the proposed drilling, in an spot identified as the Equatorial Margin, was proposed for an space over 500 kilometers (over 300 miles) from the Amazon River’s mouth.
“The firm remains dedicated to the development of the Brazilian Equatorial Margin, recognizing the significance of new frontiers to make certain the country’s power stability and the resources needed for a fair and sustainable power transition,” the assertion mentioned. “To supply Brazil’s long term demand from customers for oil, the nation will have to glance for new resources in addition to the pre-salt.”
Other controversial megaprojects in the Amazon that stay on the desk consist of repaving a freeway that would slice by means of preserved rainforest, development of a key railway for grain transport and renewal of a big hydroelectric dam’s license.
___
Affiliated Press author Eléonore Hughes in Rio de Janeiro contributed to this report.
