Brazilian oil firm Petrobras denied media reports claiming that the oil company expected to obtain the environmental license to drill a well in the FZA-M-059 block, offshore Brazil, in up to six months.
As previously reported, Brazil's environmental Ibama earlier this month rejected Petrobras' requests to drill a well in the Amapá area at the mouth of the Amazon River, due to a "set of technical inconsistencies" and following recommendations of analysts from Ibama's Environmental Licensing Board.
Petrobras said Wednesday it had, on May 25, filed a request with the Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama) to reconsider the decision to deny the environmental license to drill a well in block FZA-M-059, located offshore, about 175 km off the coast of Amapá and 560 km from the mouth of the Amazon River.
"The objective is to verify the presence of oil in deep waters at a depth of approximately 3,000 meters. The mapping (subsurface imaging) at the location to be drilled confirmed that there is no sensitive area in the 500-meter radius of the well location," Petrobras said.
"Petrobras remains committed to developing the Equatorial Margin, Brazil's new energy frontier, which encompasses five offshore basins between Amapá and Rio Grande do Norte. In this sense, the company has been making every effort to obtain this drilling license in block FZA-M-059, where it pledges to operate safely and with total respect and care for the environment and for the region's population," Petrobras added.
"Petrobras reaffirms that it is prepared to carry out its activities in the Equatorial Margin with full responsibility, where it intends to employ all of its operational knowledge and the technologies required to ensure a safe operation. Making a just energy transition in a balanced manner is the biggest challenge of all companies in the sector today," Petrobras said.
Petrobras said that "news published in the media" on the company expecting the license to be granted in up to six months was not true, but it did not share further info on the expected timeline.