Fossil fuels appear to have a future, despite their role in global warming. Brazilian state-owned oil company Petrobras announced on Monday, October 20, that it has obtained authorization to explore for oil off the Amazon. This project, denounced by environmentalists, is being pushed by left-wing Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who will host COP 30 in November in the Amazonian city of Belem.
For his critics, this oil project symbolizes Lula’s contradictions, as he simultaneously claims to be at the forefront of the fight against climate change and the defense of the Amazon rainforest. “This authorization is a sabotage of the COP and goes against the climate leadership role claimed by President Lula on the international stage,” the Climate Observatory responded in a statement.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva
A “historic error”
Drilling is to begin “immediately, for a period of five months,” using a probe already on site, the oil giant announced in a statement sent to AFP. Specifically, the license covers “the drilling of an exploratory well” located “in deep waters 500 km from the mouth of the Amazon and 175 km from the coast.” It is located in a vast maritime region known as the Equatorial Margin, where neighboring Guyana has discovered enormous oil reserves.
Brazil is the world’s eighth-largest oil producer, producing 3.4 million barrels per day in 2024. Half of its energy, however, comes from renewable sources. Lula argues that oil money can be used to finance the energy transition. But for Ilan Zugman, Latin America director of the NGO 350.org, oil exploration off the Amazon is a “historic mistake.” “It is urgent to build a just energy transition plan, based on renewable energies, that respects indigenous peoples” and other traditional communities, he added.
