Brazil’s environmental agency, IBAMA, approved a key step that could soon allow Petrobras, the nation’s state oil company, to begin offshore oil drilling near the mouth of the Amazon River.
In a May 19 decision, the agency greenlit a concept for an emergency response plan by Petrobras (PBR) to protect marine animals in case of an oil spill. It was one of the final requirements before the company could receive an environmental license to drill an oil well on block FZA-M-59, located 160 kilometers (99 miles) off the coast of Amapá, Brazil’s northeastern-most state bordering French Guiana.
The block overlaps with the Amazon Reef, a 9,500-square-kilometer (3,700-square-mile) system of corals, sponges and algae discovered in 2016.
Environmentalists say the approval contradicts the agency’s own technical evaluation recommending the response plan be denied, citing a lack of solutions for environmental impacts that could irreparably harm local biodiversity.
“There will be no possibility of rescuing numerous groups and species, including those that are endangered, which could lead to a massive loss of biodiversity in the event of an oil spill, resulting in the death of these animals,” the February 2025 document signed by 29 IBAMA analysts states.
According to Philip Fearnside, a senior researcher at the National Institute for Amazonian Research, IBAMA has been under significant political pressure to push through environment licensing.
“The mounting pressure … to approve the disastrous project to extract oil from the mouth of the Amazon River … should be interpreted as evidence that President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (known as “Lula”) fails to comprehend both the climate crisis and the consequences of the oil project,” he wrote in a commentary published by Mongabay in February 2025.
“I want [oil at the mouth of the Amazon River] to be explored,” President Lula said during a February 2025 interview with national media outlet UOL. “We need to see if there is oil and how much oil there is. Often, you drill a hole that is 2,000 meters [6,560 feet] deep and you don’t find what you had imagined.”
Petrobras said it is now preparing the NS-42 drilling rig to carry out a simulation for their oil spill response plan, before the end of June. The company, along with government authorities in the energy ministry, are in a rush to open the well quickly since Petrobas has leased the exploratory rig from another company and the 1 billion reais ($177 million) lease ends in October 2025.
Magda Chambriard, the president of Petrobras, defended the company’s actions: “Petrobras has been diligently meeting all the requirements and procedures set by regulatory, licensing, and oversight agencies,” she said in a written statement. “We have full respect for the rigor of the environmental licensing that this process demands.”
Banner image: Cape Orange National Park on the Amazonian coast of the state of Amapá. Offshore oil block 59 is located 160 kilometers (99 miles) away. Image © Victor Moriyama/Greenpeace.
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