FUP demands explanation from Ibama for delay in meeting on the Equatorial Margin: "It is procrastinating the generation of wealth for Brazil."
Federation criticizes environmental agency for delaying APO planning and denounces daily waste of R$ 4 million due to a drilling rig being idle off the coast of Pará.
247 - The Unified Federation of Oil Workers (FUP) criticized the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama) for postponing the meeting that would define the planning of the Pre-Operational Assessment (APO) on the Equatorial Margin. The statement was released this Monday (28).
The meeting, now rescheduled for August 12th, was supposed to address the final stage of the environmental licensing process for block FZA-M-59, located off the coast of Amapá. Petrobras intends to begin exploratory drilling in this area. The organization's general coordinator, Deyvid Bacelar, directly questioned the reason for the postponement: “FUP sees no technical justification, on the part of Ibama, for postponing the meeting on planning the Pre-Operational Assessment (APO) in the Equatorial Margin area of block FZA-M-59, off the coast of Amapá, where Petrobras intends to carry out exploratory drilling, to August 12th. Why the delay by Ibama?”
The operational shutdown is causing significant losses to public funds. According to FUP (the Unified Federation of Oil Workers), the drilling rig contracted by Petrobras has been idle for more than twenty days off the coast of Pará, without authorization to carry out the mandatory simulation in a pioneering well. The daily cost of the equipment is estimated at over R$ 4 million.
The APO (Preliminary Oil Spill) consists of simulating an oil spill scenario in order to test the operation's emergency protocols. Bacelar argues that the process could already be underway: "Ibama would just need to schedule the APO." Petrobras had proposed carrying out the exercise in July, but Ibama's new schedule thwarted the state-owned company's plans and prolongs the uncertainty.
Despite acknowledging the technical importance of the environmental agency, the FUP leader did not hold back in his criticism of the decision's impact: “Ibama is an important agency, with a serious and competent technical staff. But, by acting in this way, it is not contributing to the country's development. It is delaying the generation of income and wealth for Brazil, while international companies wait for Petrobras to be unable to develop this new frontier and explore it in neighboring countries such as Guyana and Suriname, on the same Equatorial Margin.”
