Brazil’s environmental regulator Ibama has given Petrobras approval to drill three new wells in the FZA-M-59 block, in the Foz do Amazonas Basin.
The license covers the Manga, PAD Morpho, and Crotalus wells, and allows operation from one of the offshore units ODN-II (NS-42) or Amaralina Star (NS-43), with simultaneous operation of both prohibited.
Petrobras must submit to Ibama, within 30 days of receiving the license, the updated drilling project schedule and the consolidation of the environmental plans and projects approved throughout the process.
The company will also have to report the actual start and end dates of the drilling of each well within up to five days after each event.
Among the environmental restrictions, the document prohibits the disposal at sea of drill cuttings from the “reservoir phase”—where the main oil reserve is located—and those from shallower reservoirs with confirmed presence of oil.
The performance of formation tests in the wells is subject to proof of installation, on the offshore unit, of a treatment plant for produced water and other oily effluents, following a prior technical inspection.
Petrobras must implement a series of environmental plans and projects already approved in the process, including the individual emergency plan, the project for monitoring the impacts of platforms and vessels on birdlife, the plan for prevention and control of exotic species, the social communication project, the environmental education project for workers, the pollution control project, and the environmental monitoring project.
