The government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is moving forward to allow Brazil’s state oil company to survey an ecologically sensitive coastal region, a decision that threatens to overshadow a major environmental summit and fuel a lingering dispute within his administration.
The Attorney General, or AGU, will be of the opinion that it is not necessary for Petroleo Brasileiro SA to carry out a major environmental impact study to begin oil exploration in the so-called Foz do Amazonas, a region on the country’s northern coast. , according to two people with knowledge of the matter.
The attorney general, who represents the interests of the entire government in judicial matters, will issue a technical opinion that takes into account a recent Supreme Court ruling in a similar case, one of the people said. Both requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
In response to a request for comment, AGU said in a statement that it is “conducting a legal analysis of the case” and will issue a formal response in the coming days.
Brazil’s top environmental agency, Ibama, earlier this year blocked the company’s plans to begin offshore exploratory drilling in the potentially oil-rich region of the Equatorial Margin, an area that covers an area of 3,600 square miles (9,500 square kilometers). Coral reef Ibama did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The standoff between regulators and Petrobras, as the oil giant is known, has led to months of simmering tensions within Lula’s government. The 77-year-old president has tried to strike a balance between economic development and the ambitious green agenda outlined by Environment Minister Marina Silva, who oversees Ibama.
Pressed to take sides in the dispute between Petrobras and Ibama, Lula has said he favors research to determine whether there is oil in the region and insists any exploration would be carried out safely to avoid environmental problems.
This week, he said the issue was still “under discussion” within his government.
Amazon Summit
The stance has marred Lula’s two-day summit of South America’s eight Amazon nations in the rainforest city of Belem. He opened the cycle of meetings by declaring the beginning of a new relationship with the Amazon where “resources will not be exploited for the benefit of a few, but will be valued and put at the service of all”.
But the clear divisions in this approach were in full view of the world.
Colombia’s Gustavo Petro, who has long pushed for a ban on new oil exploration, criticized a “progressive denialism” among countries’ efforts to curb climate change.
“What are we doing? Letting hydrocarbons explode in the jungle,” he said. “Isn’t that a complete contradiction?”
As the presidents debated, hundreds of indigenous protesters marched near the rally on Tuesday to demand protection for their territories and an end to the extraction of natural resources in the Amazon. They carried signs that read “We were always here” and “They stole our land, they stole our future.”
The controversial block of deep water in the Equatorial Margin has raised particular concern because of its location off the coast where the Amazon River flows into the Atlantic. Marina Silva, who has become Lula’s chief environmental diplomat, has been criticized for giving the green light to the project.
“Sometimes people use the wrong term: ‘Make environmental licensing more flexible,'” he said Tuesday. “No one makes heart, kidney or eye surgery flexible.”
The two mended a fractious relationship that broke down 15 years ago, when Silva stepped down as environment minister from Lula’s first presidency during a dispute over the construction of a large hydroelectric dam in the Amazon region.
On Tuesday, Brazil’s Minister of Mines and Energy, Alexandre Silveira, rejected criticism that the pursuit of new oil projects would jeopardize Lula’s aspirations to become a climate leader.
“We are working hard to help the planet decarbonize, but we cannot hide our eyes from reality,” he told reporters on the sidelines of the summit.
The Brazilian government’s commitments to a carbon-free future are far from clear. Petrobras said late Tuesday that the company’s top officials met with Bolivian President Luis Arce in Belem to discuss areas of cooperation in natural gas exploration and production.
Petrobras sees the Equatorial Margin as Brazil’s last promising exploration opportunity. The area is geologically similar to that of Guyana, where recently Exxon Mobil Corp. has made oil discoveries worth billions of barrels.
The South American leaders who make up the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization wrote a 113-point declaration late Tuesday. In it, they recognized the need to avoid “a point of no return” in the Amazon, but did not make any binding commitments on key issues such as the extraction of natural resources or the end of illegal deforestation, which that Lula has pledged to do in Brazil by 2030.
Asked on Wednesday about the future of the Foz de Amazones, Silva said projects were approved or denied on technical grounds and Ibama would not intervene.
“We don’t make it easy, and we don’t make it hard,” he said.
–With the assistance of Peter Millard, Bruna Lessa and Mariana Durao.
