Lula calls oil near the Amazon River a passport to Brazil's future after Petrobras strikes new find
Experts say commercial drilling could take up to a decade as environmental and Indigenous groups sue to stop exploration.
- On Monday, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva visited a Petrobras offshore drilling vessel near the Amazon River, where the company detected hydrocarbons about 180 kilometers off the coast of Amapa.
- The Equatorial Margin holds significant oil and natural gas reserves, with preliminary estimates suggesting the basin could contain up to 10 billion barrels of oil, valued at about $720 billion.
- Petrobras President Magda Chambriard said the company must conduct further research to determine how much oil the area contains, while Lula described a sample of crude as "blessed."
- Lula faces a tight reelection campaign in October, and political scientist Breno Rodrigues de Messias Leite said the trip sends an important message to voters in northern Brazil.
- While Lula called drilling a "passport to the country's future," environmental and Indigenous groups have sued to halt exploration, arguing the licensing process failed to properly consult traditional communities.
29 Articles
29 Articles
Petrobras, Brazil's state-owned oil company, confirmed the discovery of oil from the Morfo exploration well off the coast of Amapá state, in the Amazon River delta, but the exact amount of reserves is unknown.
Last Saturday (15), Petrobras announced the identification of hydrocarbons in the Morpho well, located 175 kilometers from the coast of Amapá and about 2,800 meters deep. Confirmation that there is oil in the Basin of the Amazon Foz, in the so-called Equatorial Margin, generated immediate excitement – President Lula came to call the discovery of "passport for the future" of the country. But there is still a long journey until the economic viabil…
The president visited a Petrobras platform in front of Amapá and claimed exploitation as a matter of sovereignty; the project faces questions for its possible impacts
The president of Brazil visits the point of the mouth of the Amazon where Petrobras has found crude in an indeterminate amount
Associated Press News
Lula calls oil near the Amazon River a passport to Brazil's future after Petrobras strikes new find
Brazil’s President Lula da Silva says oil drilling in northern coastal regions could be a "passport to the country’s future."
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