Build offshore oil wells in the Amazon Delta that could produce millions of barrels of crude oil. It is a hypothesis that Brazil has on the table and that is causing tension in the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The parastatal oil company Petrobras presented a project to explore the area and fully understand its potential. However, the Ministry of the Environment refused approval and referred to possible risks for the region. When the environmental technicians dismissed the oil company’s request with their report, Lula did not see the issue as settled and left a door open: “If the exploitation of this oil is a problem for the Amazon, of course it will not be exploited, but I will.” see it as difficult because it is 530 kilometers from the Amazon.”
This Tuesday, just over 24 hours after the President’s words, Environment Minister Marina Silva met with representatives from Petrobras and the Ministry of Mines and Energy at the Presidential Palace, and as she left she said bluntly, “This is it.” technical decision, and a technical decision in a Republican government is fulfilled,” he concluded. The nuances between the two statements reveal the delicate balance between the interests of the oil company, which Lula sees as the country’s landmark and economic engine, and Silva’s more environmentally conscious ideas.
The Company’s project will explore an area more than 500 kilometers from the confluence of the Amazon and Atlantic Ocean and 175 kilometers from the Amapá State coast. The ministry’s technical document argues, among other things, that the plan is unfeasible because it offers no guarantees against potential oil spill accidents and a lack of information on what impact it would have on three indigenous territories despite their remoteness.
After the rejection, the Ministry of Mines and Energy did not sit idle, urging Petrobras to keep the probes it has in the area, conduct preliminary studies and file a new petition. The oil company also pointed out that exploitation of the area is part of a commitment made with the state oil agency and that failure to comply will result in “a contractual penalty”.
Conservationists argue that 80% of Brazil’s mangroves lie in the Amazon Delta, the world’s largest contiguous belt. Off the coast, in the depths of the sea, corals are hidden, which have not yet been fully explored (the first images came to light only five years ago) and which arouse the curiosity of scientists because of their adaptation to fresh and salt water. Recent studies suggest that this fragile ecosystem is about 100 kilometers offshore and could have an area of more than 56,000 square kilometers, covering the entire north coast of Brazil and part of French Guiana. Organizations like Greenpeace have long pushed for the protection of this area. In 2018, a proposal to protect it by creating a nature park even made it to Parliament, but it was rejected three years later.
Petrobras defends that other companies are already working on wells in neighboring French Guiana and that everything indicates that “a new pre-salt” may be hidden in the seabed in the Brazilian part, referring to the valuable deposits on the south coast and south-east of the country in 2006 and that then-President Lula interpreted it as manna.
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It is estimated that the basin at the mouth of the Amazon could hold 10 billion barrels of oil. Years ago, the discovery of the pre-salt brought money from royalties to the communities and states where the deposits are located, something that is fondly remembered in Amapá. Politicians in this small and remote state in northern Brazil lament that Marina Silva’s ministry was shelved so quickly and without addressing local needs.
Senator Randolfe Rodrigues, leader of the parliamentary base that supports the government and is known for its environmental policies, expressed his unease at Silva Rede leaving the party they both belonged to. “The people of Amapa want the right to be heard about the possible existence and ultimate purpose of our wealth,” he said.
Minister Silva’s meeting this Tuesday and the pressure to be more flexible need not bring back fond memories. In Lula’s second term, he was leaving the department after prolonged confrontations with the Department of Mines and Energy, then occupied by future President Dilma Rousseff. After years apart, Silva and Lula made peace in the last election campaign. The veteran environmentalist said Lula had changed and that he understood the environment and climate urgency needed to be a priority on his agenda.
The President is handling the controversy with leaden feet at the moment. He knows that putting the Amazon and oil in a sentence that could ring alarm bells outside of Brazil is an explosive cocktail, just as the country is starting out after four years of setbacks at the hands of former President Jair Bolsonaro to regain his standing in green diplomacy.
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