Brazil’s environment agency, IBAMA, has approved an environmental license for state-owned oil company Petrobras to drill for oil near the mouth of the Amazon River. The license, issued Oct. 20, allows the company start drilling the offshore Morpho well in oil block FZA-M-059, about 500 kilometers (311 miles) from the river’s mouth, and 2.8 km (1.7 mi) below the seafloor. Environmental groups have vehemently condemned the decision, saying they will pursue legal action. “[President] Lula has just buried his claim of being a climate leader at the bottom of the ocean at the mouth of the Amazon River,” Suely Araújo, public policy coordinator at the Climate Observatory, a Brazilian watchdog organization, said in a statement. “The government will be duly sued for this in the coming days.” (Araújo previously served as IBAMA head during President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s first term in office.) According to Petrobras, the drilling will be exploratory to evaluate whether the oil reserves there are economically viable. “We expect to obtain excellent results from this exploration and to confirm the existence of oil in the Brazilian portion of this new global energy frontier,” Petrobras president Magda Chambriard said in a statement, adding that the license’s approval reflects the nation’s commitment to development. The oil company said the drilling will start immediately and is expected to last for five months, meaning it will overlap with the COP30 climate summit, the first to be hosted by Brazil, in the Amazon Rainforest. “Drilling for oil while hosting a…This article was originally published on Mongabay
