By Brazil Stock Guide – Brazil’s environmental regulator Ibama has scheduled a meeting with Petrobras (PETR3; PETR4) for Thursday, October 16, to discuss pending issues in the licensing process for an exploratory well in the Equatorial Margin. The move follows a new technical report highlighting “uncertainties and pending matters” in the company’s Individual Emergency and Wildlife Protection Plans, according to documents seen by Reuters.
Petrobras CEO Magda Chambriard confirmed the meeting during an event at industry federation Firjan in Rio de Janeiro, saying she hopes the process will be resolved by the same date. “I expected the license to have been approved already,” she said. “The concern is October 21, which is the limit of the rig contract. If we don’t start drilling by then, the rig may be removed — and if replaced in the future, the licensing process restarts from scratch.”
Chambriard said Ibama requested the meeting and that Petrobras has already positioned its rig at the drilling site. “The rig is on location, with the drill bit pointed at the well,” she noted. She also highlighted the mounting costs: R$4.2 million per day, combining rig leasing and operational expenses. On September 24, Ibama asked Petrobras to clarify discrepancies between the positioning of support vessels and the company’s pre-operational environmental assessment.
“The first adjustment request after the pre-operational approval caught us by surprise — let alone the second,” Chambriard said, adding that despite the hurdles, she recognizes Ibama’s vast workload. “They handle oil, mining, power, ants, frogs, snails. Their scope is enormous. Like Petrobras, they need to focus on what’s essential.”
The latest assessment, added to the process on Monday, came after Ibama had approved Petrobras’s emergency-response test in August while requesting additional technical corrections. Petrobras submitted its responses on September 26, seeking to unlock what it views as a strategic project to open a new offshore frontier in northern Brazil.
According to the Federation of Oil Workers (FUP), Petrobras has already spent more than R$1 billion since 2022 on environmental licensing — including R$543 million on rig leasing, R$327 million on vessels, and R$142 million on air services. The standoff has become a test case for Brazil’s environmental and energy policy, pitting energy sovereignty against environmental caution along the country’s most politically charged offshore frontier.
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