New Pre-Salt Discovered Off The Coast Of Amapá, Pará, And Maranhão Sparks Dispute Between Companies And Environmental Authorities

New Pre-Salt in the Northern Region of Brazil May Have Up to 30 Billion Barrels of Oil Equivalent off the Coast of Amapá, Pará, and Maranhão

Brazil discovers a new pre-salt! Scientific study highlighting the vast petroleum potential in the northern oceanic fringe of the national territory, encompassing Maranhão, Pará, and Amapá was delivered to the president of the Federation of Industries of Maranhão (Fiema), Edilson Baldez, in January of this year, and has already opened a dispute among companies and environmental agencies.

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In the deep and ultra-deep waters of the Pará-Maranhão Basin, there are approximately 30 billion barrels of oil in recoverable prospective resources identified. This is stated in the document “A New ‘Pre-Salt’ in the Northern Arc of Brazilian Territory,” authored by Allan Kardec Duailibe Barros Filho, a professor at the Federal University of Maranhão (UFMA), Ronaldo Gomes Carmona, a geopolitics professor at the Superior War School (ESG), and Pedro Victor Zalán, president of ZAG Consulting in Oil Exploration.

Of this total, 13 billion barrels could actually be transformed into discovered reserves, considering a success rate of 45%, especially in Maranhão. In the pre-salt, there are 40 billion barrels.

“The first step is to enter into bidding, because the land belongs to Brazil, so some governmental body has to put it up for bidding for companies to acquire. The one that does this is the National Agency of Petroleum (ANP). There are several rounds of bidding. For instance, this year, there is the 17th round, which we did not enter. We want to enter in the 18th round,” explained Maranhão specialist Allan Kardec Barros Filho, who has previously served as a director of the ANP.

New Pre-Salt and Environmental Regulation

Fearful of the environmental damage that the activity may cause in these states, the government opted to exclude blocks located in this basin from oil auctions until 2022.

Some oil companies that bought concessions for areas in the Amazon River Delta Basin, off the coast of Amapá and Pará, have never managed to receive approval from Ibama. One example is the French company Total, which, after two failed attempts to obtain licensing, gave up the business and preferred to transfer it to Petrobras.

According to Ibama, economic activity could compromise the survival of coral reefs extending from Amapá to Maranhão. The agency also sees risks to the Manuel Luís Marine State Park, located on the coast of Maranhão, a conservation unit for marine flora and fauna.

Petrobras Owns Three Blocks in the Pará-Maranhão Basin

The state-owned company owns three blocks in the Pará-Maranhão basin, but extraction has not yet begun. Enauta, another medium-sized Brazilian oil company, holds two blocks in the basin but has not drilled in any of them yet. The company classified the region as strategic for its business and “of high prospective value.”

The National Agency of Petroleum states that it maintains constant talks with Ibama, but, so far, there is no forecast for including the areas in its auctions. At the same time, it claims that it continues to study the basin and has had positive results.