Brazilian state-controlled Petrobras has obtained authorization from environmental watchdog Ibama to drill an exploratory well in a promising new oil frontier off Brazil's northern coast, the firm said on Monday.
Drilling in the FZA-M-059 block, in deep waters 175km (109 miles) off the coast of Amapa state and around 500km from the mouth of the Amazon river, will start "immediately", Petrobras said. The process is expected to last five months.
In this exploration phase, the company will gather geological information and assess whether the block contains commercially viable oil and gas deposits.
"We hope to get excellent results from this research," chief executive Magda Chambriard said.
The equatorial margin, and particularly the northern Foz do Amazonas basin off the coast of Amapa, is Petrobras' main bet to replenish its oil reserves, set to start declining from 2030.
But gaining the necessary environmental permit from Ibama to start exploration lasted nearly five years, amid technical concerns over the safety of the project and civil society opposition to oil exploration in Foz do Amazonas.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva supports exploring new oil frontiers, but environmental groups argue that Brazil's plans for oil exploration are incompatible with its climate commitments.
Brazil is also authorizing this new oil project in an environmentally sensitive area just weeks before Brazil hosts the UN Cop 30 climate summit, in the nearby city of Belem.
The authorization to drill "undermines Cop 30, where the most important outcome needs to be the implementation of the commitment to phase out fossil fuels", Suely Araujo, public policy coordinator at the Observatorio do Clima environmental umbrella group, said, adding that "the government will be duly challenged in court over this in the coming days".
Mines and energy minister Alexandre Silveira, on the other hand, commended the permit, saying the equatorial margin is the future of Brazil's energy sovereignty and that it "cannot afford to neglect [the equatorial margin's] potential".
"We have made a firm and technical defense to ensure that exploration is conducted with full environmental responsibility, within the highest international standards, and with concrete benefits for Brazilians," he said.
Brazil's oil is "among the most sustainable in the world, with one of the lowest carbon footprints per barrel produced", he added.
