“Those who sleep today dreaming of oil wealth tend to wake up tomorrow with a stranded asset, or an ecological disaster, or both.” It is time to establish a calendar to eliminate fossil fuels and accelerate the just transition for oil exporting countries, such as Brazil, and not open a new exploration frontier,” Araújo said in a statement. “The decision in this case gives cause for a broader debate about the role of oil in the country’s future. Suely Araújo, a former head of the environment agency and now a public policy specialist with the Climate Observatory, said Agostinho made the right call not just for the specific project, but also for the nation. Exploration rights were transferred to Petrobras in 2020. The process to obtain an environmental license for the FZA-M-59 block began in 2014, at the request of BP Energy do Brasil. The unique and biodiverse area is home to little-studied swaths of mangroves and a coral reef, and activists and experts had said the project risked leaks that could be carried widely by tides and imperil the sensitive environment.

“There is no doubt that Petrobras was offered every opportunity to remedy critical points of its project, but that it still presents worrisome inconsistencies for the safe operation in a new exploratory frontier with high socioenvironmental vulnerability,” Agostinho wrote in his decision. The company failed to convince the environmental agency. The company earmarked almost half its five-year, $6 billion exploration budget for the area, and in a statement Thursday said it would file an official request that the decision be reconsidered.ĬEO Jean Paul Prates had said that the first well would be temporary and that the company has never recorded a leak in offshore drilling. With Brazil’s existing production set to peak in coming years, Petrobras has sought to secure more reserves off Brazil’s northern coast. He cited “a group of technical inconsistencies” in the company’s application. The agency’s president, Rodrigo Agostinho, highlighted environmental concerns in announcing the decision Wednesday evening to turn down the state-run oil company Petrobras’ request to drill the FZA-M-59 block.

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) - Brazil’s environmental regulator has rejected a license for a controversial offshore oil drilling project near the mouth of the Amazon River that had drawn strong opposition from activists who warned of its potential for damaging the area.

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