While President Lula’s Environment Minister Marina Silva supported the decision, Lula’s ally Randolfe Rodrigues vowed to oppose it.
Brazil’s environmental regulator’s decision to block state oil company Petrobras’ Amazon oil project has highlighted tensions in President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s coalition between those who want to protect Brazil’s environment and those who prioritize economic development at any price.
Brazil’s environmental regulator Ibama said late on Wednesday it would block an application by state-run giant Petrobras to drill at the mouth of the Amazon River near Amapá, in a long-awaited decision that followed a technical recommendation from experts of Ibama to reject. the project
In a filing, Petrobras said it planned to file an appeal to have Ibama reconsider its decision, saying it “strictly complied with all the requirements of the licensing process.”
Ibama’s decision, which is overseen by Lula’s environment minister, world-renowned environmentalist Marina Silva, has angered some within the ruling coalition.
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Lula, who hails from the impoverished northeast, has staked his international reputation on reversing the environmental backsliding under his far-right predecessor, former president Jair Bolsonaro. But he is also under pressure to deliver much-needed growth to the poor and underdeveloped regions of the north and northeast, and wants state-owned Petrobras to be a driver of that growth.
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Senator Randolfe Rodrigues, who represents Amapa State, said Ibama had taken a decision with a huge economic impact on the state without considering the views of the people of Amapa or their state government. Rodrigues is a strong ally of Lula who ran his presidential campaign last year.
“We will fight this decision,” Rodrigues wrote on Twitter, adding that “the people of Amapa want to have the right to be heard.” He later announced he was leaving his party, the centre-left Sustainability Network, in light of the decision.
Ibama’s decision against the investigation on the Amapá coast did not listen to the local government or any citizen of my state. The people of Amapa want to have the right to be heard about the possible existence and eventual destination of our riches (…)
— Randolfe Rodrigues (@randolfeap) May 18, 2023
The Sustainability Network was founded in the early 2010s by Silva, the Minister of the Environment, who appointed the head of Ibama Rodrigo Agostinho.
Agostinho told GloboNews TV on Thursday that Petrobras could submit a new application for drilling in the region, but noted that the studies submitted by the company so far were not sufficient to approve the move.
Petrobras said in its filing that it was not giving up hope in its plans to develop an oil-rich region with potential reserves of up to 14 billion barrels of oil.
“The company remains committed to the development of the Brazilian Equatorial Margin,” he said, adding that it would “guarantee the country’s energy security.”
final decision
Despite Petrobras’ stated intentions, the ruling effectively ends all future development of unexplored oil prospects at the mouth of the Amazon River, former Ibama director Suely Araujo told Reuters.
Araujo said that even if Petrobras undertakes the deeper studies requested by Ibama, the final word still rests with the regulator. “The decision is final,” he said, adding that he hoped Lula would support Ibama’s decision.
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Exploration rights to the area were auctioned in 2013, but oil majors BP and TotalEnergies pulled out because of the cost of offshore studies and difficulties in obtaining licenses for drilling, while Petrobras continued.
Neither Lula’s office nor the environment ministry responded to requests for comment.
Environmental groups celebrated Ibama’s decision.
In a statement, Greenpeace said Ibama had emphasized the need for “a just energy transition, rather than insisting on another oil exploration frontier in the context of the climate crisis.”
Ibama has “postponed the end of the world”, proclaimed the environmental group Observatorio do Clima.
