In the technical note that vetoed oil exploration at the mouth of the Amazon River by Petrobras, the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama) justified that in the event of an eventual tragedy at the site, help could take 43 hours to arrive .
In the request it sent to Ibama, Petrobras had committed to keeping helicopters and boats available for the platform, which would serve as support in the event of a tragedy.
::Minister asks for the maintenance of probes at the mouth of the Amazon even after Ibama’s decision::
However, Ibama considered that help would come from the base of operations, in Belém (PA), 830 kilometers from the exploration site. According to the organ, this displacement would be fatal in case of leaks, for example.
“Even under the best meteoceanographic conditions, the plan presents excessive travel times for equipment and personnel, making it unlikely to provide adequate assistance to an oil spill event”, pondered Rodrigo Agostinho, in the technical note.
::Petrobras will appeal Ibama’s decision that vetoed oil exploration at the mouth of the Amazon::
Also according to the dispatch signed by Agostinho, the relief plan presented by Petrobras is “inferior to the practices adopted by the company itself in other regions of the coast —which would be a contradiction in a new frontier with highly vulnerable environmental assets.”
Editing: Jose Eduardo Bernardes
