Brasilia, Oct. 23, 2025 (Lusa) - Brazil's environment minister, Marina Silva, acknowledged the contradiction of authorising oil drilling at the mouth of the Amazon just a few days before the United Nations Climate Summit (COP30) kicks off in the Brazilian Amazon.
In an interview with an official body of the Brazilian government (Canal Gov), Marina Silva, a recognised environmental leader who has returned to the ministry she occupied during Lula da Silva's first government (2003-2006) (from which she left due to disagreements over environmental policy) said that "there is a contradiction that people are raising, and with good reason".
"Society is debating not just Brazil, but the whole world. We need to get away from our dependence on fossil fuels, because they're what are heating the Earth's temperature. What is the way to do this? Fair planning so that everyone can make the transition," she emphasised.
Even so, she guaranteed that there was no political pressure and that "all the technical work was done with the utmost rigour".
"Ibama [the Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources] gave a technical licence," the minister stressed, adding that "the licence for oil prospecting on the equatorial margin, at the mouth of the Amazon, is for the studies to see if there is oil in quantity and quality".
"Then the whole exploration process takes place. Right now it's prospecting," explained the presidential candidate in 2010, 2014 and 2018, having always come third.
The Brazilian government, headed by Lula da Silva, has considered that the development of oil and gas exploration and production activities should go hand in hand with decarbonisation policies and the expansion of biofuels, and that hydrocarbon production can help foot the bill for the energy transition.
Brazilian state oil company Petrobras announced on Monday that it had obtained an environmental licence to drill a deepwater well in the mouth of the Amazon, a decision supported by the Brazilian President and criticised by several environmentalists.
In a statement, Petrobras said it had received the environmental licence from the Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama) "for the drilling of an exploratory well in block FZA-M-059, located in the deep waters of Amapá, 500 kilometres from the mouth of the Amazon River and 175 kilometres from the coast, on the Brazilian Equatorial Margin".
The rig "is at the location of the well and drilling is scheduled to begin immediately, with an estimated duration of five months".
Through this exploratory research, Petrobras "seeks to obtain more geological information and assess whether there is oil and gas in the area on an economic scale".
"There is no oil production at this stage," the company said in a statement about the drilling authorisation, a decision that comes less than a month before the Amazonian city of Belém do Pará hosts the United Nations Climate Conference (COP30).
Hydrocarbon exploration in the region is viewed with concern by non-governmental organisations and environmental activists due to the potential impact of a spill on the area, which is considered extremely sensitive to socio-environmental issues.
Brazilian President Lula da Silva has repeatedly defended the need to authorise Petrobras to explore potential fields, arguing that the resulting revenues could finance the country's energy transition.
He has repeated that Brazil cannot "give up Brazilian oil for others to exploit".
The authorisation from the Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama), according to the Brazilian government, "marks a decisive advance in the exploration of the Equatorial Margin, considered one of the most promising new frontiers in the oil and gas sector in the world, with a potential of 10 billion recoverable barrels".
MIM/ADB // ADB.
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