Petrobras filed a request with the National Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels Agency (ANP) to suspend the deadline to carry out exploration in the Foz do Amazonas Basin, on the Equatorial Margin. According to the executive director of Exploration and Production, Sílvia dos Anjos, the measure was necessary because the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama) has not yet concluded the oil company’s permission to begin work on the first well. in the region. In order not to lose the possibility of exploring the area, it was necessary to stop counting time.
“We have a concession deadline, if you don’t have a license, the deadline runs out. You then have to postpone it because you haven’t gotten the license yet. This block was acquired in 2013, clearly we have already passed and had to carry out renovations. Every time you don’t have a license, you automatically request it and the ANP gives you an additional period of time. We ask and it will be given, just suspend. Stop counting the clock”, explained the director.
Sílvia dos Anjos said that Petrobras will drill the well, “but to evaluate the petroleum system, it will be necessary to have more wells to make a correct assessment of the area”.
“We had a probe there in January last year and today we could already have an assessment of the oil potential in the region. This would open a new horizon”, he said.
Sílvia dos Anjos added that this well is more than 500 kilometers from the mouth and 170 kilometers from the coast in a place where more than 1,100 vessels circulate annually. “The place where we are going to drill the well is not an isolated ecological paradise, there are more than 1,000 cargo ships circulating through the area. Petrobras has already drilled more than 5,400 wells. Well drilling does not cause spillage. The biggest oil spill we have is in transportation,” he noted.
Demands
The executive director of Corporate Affairs, Clarice Coppetti, who is in charge of Petrobras’ negotiations with Ibama, said that all demands presented by the environmental agency have already been met.
On August 2, Petrobras attached to the process a proposal for the creation of a fauna protection base, which is under analysis by the Ibama technical team. “We responded to all the points that Ibama’s technical team raised, and with this presentation of the fauna protection base we closed any and all demands for non-compliance with Ibama’s own manuals. The technical conversations continue and we are always hoping that this analysis will be completed. I believe that this year, we will get a return from the technical team”, he stated.
“Our dialogue has always been at a high level. We never had a dialogue outside of institutional standards and mutual respect. These are procedural questions of analyzing the manuals and whether we are responding or not. It is a region of great complexity from the point of view of logistics and of obtaining qualified professionals. This base that we have set up there is not just physical, on land, it is articulated with the entire group of vessels and also cabotage”, explained the executive director of Corporate Affairs.
Sílvia dos Anjos believes that the animal care base in Oiapoque, proposed by Petrobras, is an additional precautionary measure that the company presents in the process. “It is a rehabilitation center for animals that may become contaminated by oil during drilling. I am absolutely sure that it will never be used, because if we do not cause this in 5,400 wells, it will not be used”, he assessed.
