‘New pre-salt’ threatens Brazil’s goal of becoming environmental powerhouse
Considered the "new pre-salt", the Brazilian Equatorial Margin, a strip of more than 2,000 km from the state of Amapá to the state of Rio Grande do Norte, has become the biggest clash between Petrobras and environmental organizations.At the center of the dispute is the Lula administration, which is trying to reconcile the objectives of the enthusiasts of the new oil front with the goals of the group trying to turn Brazil into an environmental powerhouse. Ahead is a project that could bring at least 5 billion barrels of oil out of the ground over the next few years, with initial investments of $3 billion in the drilling of 16 wells.Behind the scenes at the ministries of Mines and Energy and Environment and Climate Change, a tug-of-war is testing the strength of the parties involved in the discussion about the future of Petrobras, which is seeking to extend the exploration time of its reserves beyond the current 11.4 years, and the environmental authorities who see the possibility of Brazil becoming a global leader in decarbonization. The Brazilian Climate Observatory claims that, given that Brazil’s energy mix is renewable, the country could become the first carbon-negative nation on the planet, i.e. sequestering more carbon than it emits, by 2045.For environmentalists, this would not be possible with the plan to extract increasing volumes of oil and gas from the depths of the Equatorial Margin. The region concentrates five sedimentary basins: Potiguar, Ceará, Barreirinhas, Pará-Maranhão and the Amazon estuary, the one generating the most resistance.Brazil’s environmental protection agency Ibama, which is in charge of environmental licensing for offshore exploration projects, has denied all attempts to drill in the area. French company Total, for example, has already had five applications denied."They were unable to demonstrate the ability to control an oil spill in the region," said Suely Araújo, president of the agency between June 2016 and December 2018, when Total’s requests were vetoed.In 2022, Petrobras was also denied authorization to drill in a block at the Amazon estuary. The state-owned company asked Ibama to reconsider, claiming that, at this stage, it is only trying to understand the real dimensions of the reserve under the Amazon reef, an area considered environmentally sensitive and still little studied. A possible oil spill would be a severe environmental disaster, even though the reef system is more than 500 km from the...
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