Petrobras approved to start exploratory oil drilling near mouth of Amazon river

Joa_Souza/iStock Unreleased via Getty Images

Petrobras (NYSE:PBR [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/PBR]) +0.4% on Monday after saying Brazil's Ibama environmental agency awarded a license [https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/brazils-petrobras-authorized-drill-foz-do-amazonas-region-2025-10-20/] to drill one exploratory well in the Foz do Amazonas region near the mouth of the Amazon river, an area in deep waters off the shore of Brazil's Amapa state that the company considers its most promising oil frontier.

The drilling is expected to begin immediately and last roughly five months, Petrobras (NYSE:PBR [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/PBR]) said.

While the Foz do Amazonas area is 330 miles from the Amazon river itself, environmentalists say strong currents could drive any spilled oil into the delicate marine environment fed by the Amazon’s freshwater outflow, endangering the ecosystem and posing a threat to coastal indigenous populations.

Petrobras (PBR [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/PBR]) CEO Magda Chambriard said the granting of the license is an "achievement for Brazilian society," and that the company hopes to "obtain excellent results in this research and prove the existence of oil in the Brazilian portion of this new global energy frontier."

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