The "End Of The World Auction" - Brazil Announces 602 Oil/Gas Lease Sites - Offshore, Rainforest, Park Buffer Zones
One day after the end of the COP28 climate summit, Brazil’s National Petroleum Agency (ANP) conducted what is known as the “End-of-the-World” auction, selling off drilling rights in 602 new exploration areas, including 21 in the Amazon River basin. More than half (12 blocks) are located in areas that directly impact up to 20 Indigenous lands and the buffer zones of at least 15 conservation units (protected areas for biodiversity. Also included are blocks affecting demarcated quilombola territories, which are areas inhabited by the descendants of Africans who escaped from slavery in past centuries; quilombolas have the same rights as Indigenous peoples under Brazil’s constitution.
The offering also included environmentally sensitive areas for offshore drilling and coral reef areas all along the coast of Brazil. Two offshore areas offered received no bids, apparently because their fame would make them a reputational risk: the area around the Fernando de Neronha islands and the Atol das Rocas. Areas “under study,” not included in the present auction, include the first part of the disastrous “Solimões Sedimentary Area” oil and gas project (Figure 1). This project would drive road building and deforestation in the vast Tran-Purus area in the western half of the state of Amazonas (see here, here, here and here).
Figure 1. Map of oil and gas extraction in the Brazilian Amazon. There are 52 blocks already contracted (gray), 307 under study (orange) and 92 ready for offer (red) out of a total of 451 planned extraction areas. Image: Instituto Internacional Arayara.
The timing of the auction certainly shows the complete disconnect between the Lula administration’s discourse on the environment and the most consequential concrete actions the government is taking. It is certainly coincidental that the auction is one day after COP28, perhaps suggesting that it was postponed slightly so as not to add one more scandalous event during the COP itself. However, the President was OK with Brazil joining the OPEC+ group of oil-exporting countries during the event, drawing attention to the same type of hypocrisy and earning Brazil a “fossil-of-the-day” prize at COP28.
The carbon emissions from the oil to be pumped and burned represent a “bomb” for climate change. The auction also signals that the Brazilian government and the companies investing in the drilling blocks, including Brazil’s government oil company (Petrobras), are not planning to end fossil fuel extraction within the next few years during which this needs to occur to prevent crossing a tipping point leading to uncontrollable global warming.
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https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/brazils-end-of-the-world-auction-for-oil-and-gas-drilling-commentary/