Two weeks before Brazil hosts the COP30 summit in the Amazon city of Belém, its state-run oil firm Petrobras has been granted a licence to explore for oil in an offshore block in the mouth of the Amazon River, a move criticised by campaigners as undermining the country’s climate leadership.
After five years of discussions, Brazil’s government approved an environmental permit for Petrobras to drill an exploratory oil well in block FZA-M-59 in the Foz do Amazonas Basin, in Amapá state.
The offshore site is 540 kilometres from the mouth of the Amazon River, near the border with Guyana. As Climate Home News previously reported, almost 20% – 5.3 billion barrels of oil equivalent – of global oil reserves identified between 2022 and 2024 are located in the Amazon, primarily along South America’s northern coast between Guyana and Suriname.
The licence for block FZA-M-59 was earlier denied in 2023, when experts at environmental agency Ibama concluded that Petrobras had failed to present a solid impact mitigation and emergency response plan. But after the company made adjustments, it said on Monday it had been given permission to proceed.
The company said the drilling is expected to start right away and last around five months, adding that no oil will be produced for now.
Observatório do Clima, a coalition of Brazilian climate groups, said it is planning to challenge the decision in court and “denounce the illegalities and technical failures in the licensing process” in a bid to render the licence null and void.
Suely Araújo, the network’s coordinator of public policies, described the issuance of the license as “a double sabotage”.
“On the one hand, the Brazilian government acts against humanity by stimulating further fossil expansion, contradicting science and betting on more global warming. On the other hand, it hinders COP30 itself, whose most important delivery needs to be the implementation of the determination to phase out fossil fuels,” she said.
Ilan Zugman, Latin America and Caribbean Director at climate campaign 350.org, said that “authorising new oil licenses in the Amazon is not just a historic mistake – it’s doubling down on a model that has already failed”, adding that it produces profits for a few but can bring violence for locals.
“Brazil must take real climate leadership and break the cycle of extraction that has led us to the current climate crisis,” he said.
Brazilian energy ministry defends decision
Announcing the decision to grant the licence, Brazil’s Minister of Mines and Energy Alexandre Silveira said the oil in the Equatorial Margin region “represents the future of our energy sovereignty”.
He said Brazil had made “a firm and technical defence” to ensure that exploitation “is done with full environmental responsibility, within the highest international standards, and with concrete benefits for Brazilians and Brazilians”.
The Amazon rainforest emerges as the new global oil frontier
The ministry said in a press release that the FZA-M-59 block “has the potential to open a new exploratory frontier”, with the activity expected to generate more than 300,000 direct and indirect jobs, strengthen the local economy and boost royalty revenues.
Silveira also argued that Brazil’s oil “is one of the most sustainable in the world, with one of the smallest carbon footprints per barrel produced”, ahead of countries such as Canada, the UK and Russia.
ICJ warns on state support for fossil fuels
Campaigners said that the decision goes against recent rulings by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which reinforce countries’ commitments to protect the climate.
In a landmark advisory opinion issue in July, the ICJ mentioned granting fossil fuel exploration licenses as one example of state policies that could constitute “an internationally wrongful act”.
The International Energy Agency, meanwhile, has said that no new fossil fuel projects are needed if global emissions are to fall to net zero by 2050 in line with limiting warming to 1.5C, as governments said they would aim to do under the Paris Agreement.
Carlos Nobre, co-chair of the Amazon Scientific Panel, warned that ignoring such advice could see global warming hit 2C, threatening to push the Amazon rainforest across an irreversible tipping point.
“Beyond eliminating all deforestation, degradation and fires in the Amazon, it is urgent to reduce all fossil fuel emissions. There is no justification for any new oil exploration. On the contrary, rapidly phasing out existing fossil fuel operations is essential,” he said.
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazil’s president, backs oil exploration in the country – already the world’s eighth-largest producer – arguing that the profits could be used to finance the transition to clean energy. “I dream of a day when we no longer need fossil fuels, but that day is still far away. Humanity will depend on them for a long time,” he said in a speech back in February in Pará, the state that will host COP30.
After the licence was approved, Clara Junger, campaign coordinator for Brazil at the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative, refuted Lula’s perspective. “This decision undermines commitments to the energy transition and puts communities, ecosystems, and the planet at risk. Contrary to official claims, oil revenues contribute almost nothing to the transition – only 0.06%,” she said in a statement.
Banks pour billions into Amazon oil and gas
Back in 2023, at COP28 in Dubai, countries agreed to “transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems”. Earlier this year, Brazil’s Environment Minister Marina Silva suggested COP30 could result in a roadmap to guide a “planned and just transition” to end fossil fuels, although there has been little advance since.
Livia Duarte, a congresswoman from Pará State, said a global agreement to phase out fossil fuels is needed, especially in the Amazon. “Corporate profit should never take precedence over life on the planet. Granting a license in Block FZA-M-59, in the Amazon River estuary basin, is a dangerous choice for Brazil,” she added.
On Tuesday, new data published in the Banks vs. the Amazon scorecard, showed that Brazilian and international banks have extended an additional $2 billion in direct financing for Amazon oil and gas projects – including to Petrobras – since the beginning of 2024.
In a statement, green group Stand.earth said that by financing these projects, “banks are fuelling both the climate crisis and the destruction of the Amazon, instead of backing the just energy transition urgently needed”. It called on them to implement Amazon oil and gas financing exclusion policies to protect Indigenous communities and “help avert Amazon’s imminent tipping point”.
