Petrobras wants to drill for oil off the Amazon coast already in 2024

Jean Paul Prates, the chief executive of Brazil’s state-controlled oil giant Petrobras, said on Wednesday that he expects the company to start drilling off the coast of the Amazonian state of Amapá by 2024, despite the country’s federal environmental agency having denied Petrobras a permit to do so.

“We’ll go to Amapá next … We have a legitimate expectation of, in the first semester of next year, or by the end of next year at the latest, heading to Amapá to drill in the Equatorial Margin,” Mr. Prates said at a seminar on energy transition in Rio de Janeiro.

In May, federal environmental agency Ibama denied Petrobras a license to drill an exploratory well off the coast of Amapá, citing “worrying inconsistencies” in the company’s environmental impact studies. The company appealed to Ibama, but there is no timeline established for a new decision.

In September, Ibama granted Petrobras the first permit to explore for oil in a region called the Equatorial Margin — located along Brazil’s northern and northeastern coasts and one of the world’s most promising new oil frontiers (see map below). The permit covers two oil blocks off the coast of Rio Grande do Norte (in the Potiguar field), about 2,000 kilometers away from Amapá.

“There’s absolutely no intergovernmental conflict on this subject,” Mr. Prates added. In reality, Environment Minister Marina Silva has defended Ibama’s decision tooth and nail and said that there can be no political conciliation with technical decisions.

The event attended by Mr. Prates was held at the headquarters of the National Development Bank (BNDES), headed by former Senator Aloizio Mercadante. Both men have met several times this year, and BNDES owns about 8 percent of Petrobras shares.

“The potential of the Equatorial Margin is immense for Brazil,” Mr. Mercadante said. “The current debate is very similar to the one around the pre-salt [massive deepwater reserves discovered in 2006 by Petrobras]. Can [one] imagine Brazil today without the pre-salt? We need to discover new reserves.”

Yesterday, Mr. Prates said Petrobras is taking the necessary steps to manage increased volatility in fuel prices after the most recent Hamas attack in Israel.

Ibama did not immediately reply to The Brazilian Report for a request for comment.

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