Brazil’s state-owned oil big Petrobras will enchantment a call by the environmental safety company Ibama to disclaim it a license to drill an oil nicely off the coast of the northern state of Amapá, in an space referred to as the Equatorial Margin.
In a assertion launched on Wednesday, Petrobras stated it could file an enchantment this week. The corporate argued that it had gone past the necessities set forth within the bidding course of for the block FZA-M-059 and that it additionally met all of the technical necessities demanded by Ibama.
Ibama president Rodrigo Agostinho rejected the license final week on the grounds of “technical inconsistencies” relating to the protection of the drilling operations. A technical report drawn up by Ibama additionally famous that Petrobras had didn’t current an environmental evaluation of the sedimentary space.
A gaggle of 80 civil society organizations that expressed opposition to the mission again in April highlighted that the oil drilling plans not solely threaten the ecosystems of the Equatorial Margin — an ecologically delicate space that spans the mouth of the Amazon River — however are additionally “incoherent with the socio-environmental commitments made by the Brazilian authorities to the Brazilian inhabitants and worldwide group.”
The difficulty is inflicting a rift inside the authorities, as Surroundings Minister Marina Silva is staunchly in opposition to the exploration of this new oil frontier.
Ms. Silva, Mr. Agostinho, Petrobras president Jean-Paul Prates and the Mines and Vitality Minister Alexandre Silveira mentioned the difficulty on Tuesday in a gathering mediated by Chief of Employees Rui Costa. Ms. Silva got here out of the assembly saying Ibama’s resolution can be revered.
“It’s a technical resolution, and a technical resolution, in a republican and democratic authorities, is enforced and revered, primarily based on proof,” the surroundings minister stated.
However Petrobras subsequently introduced that it could be interesting the choice by providing “extra measures,” which would come with increasing a fauna stabilization middle in Amapá to work with one other such base in Belém, Pará state, to help fauna in each areas “within the distant risk of an oil spilling accident.”
