While in New York to speak at the opening of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly, President Lula met with the global president of the British multinational oil company Shell, Wael Sawan, and with the president of Shell Brazil, Cristiano Pinto.
By Jeferson Choma
In his UN speech, Lula spoke about wars and also about climate change, and demanded that the biggest capitalist countries meet the carbon emission reduction targets.
When asked if he saw no contradiction between his speech and an off-agenda meeting with one of the world’s largest oil companies, Lula replied: “I don’t see any contradiction. I received a businessman [from a company] that has simply been in Brazil for a hundred years (…). It is a company that contributed within the logic of the demands of Brazil’s energy policy”, he said.
Oil exploration in the mouth of the Amazon River was on the agenda
The guideline was oil exploration in the Amazon, in the Equatorial Margin. According to the press, Shell’s CEO delivered to the President a study that defends the need for Brazil to advance in oil exploration. It is no secret that Lula, the president of Petrobras, and leaders of the right-wing opposition, defend the risky oil exploration in the region. So far, no oil company has proven with IBAMA (Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources) that exploration can be safe and without environmental risks. But there is a lot of money and power at stake, and the pressures on the environmental agency to allow oil exploration are enormous.
Petrobras is pushing for IBAMA to authorize drilling in Block 59, located 160 kilometers off the coast of Amapá. If granted, this authorization would be the first of many authorizations for the opening of this new oil frontier.
Brazil has 45 oil exploration blocks in the Equatorial Margin. They were auctioned in 2013. Petrobras currently owns 17 blocks and Shell 11 blocks. But 60% of Petrobras’ exploration will be carried out jointly with the foreign oil company.
The farce of national development
The Equatorial Margin is already called “the new Brazilian pre-salt”, in reference to earlier deep offshore drilling for oil, with the possibility of producing between 5 and 7.5 billion barrels of oil. The government justifies the exploitation (and so does the majority of the Bolsonarist opposition) by saying that it will serve national development. These are old words that have already been used to justify the exploitation of the pre-salt region and the construction of the Belo Monte hydroelectric plant. The country did not develop as a result of these projects. On the contrary, it became more unequal and more dependent, even on oil refining, and more vulnerable to energy crises. There is no reason to think that oil from the Amazon will improve the lives of the people. Yes, it will improve the life of some politicians and, above all, it will put a lot of money in the pockets of the big shareholders of Petrobras and Shell.
The oil is not ours
This is because the expansion of this new oil frontier will take place within the framework of the profound denationalization of oil exploitation and production in Brazil. The end of the state oil monopoly (in 1997), the sale of Petrobras shares to foreign investors that turned it into a mixed capital company, the innumerable auctions of oil fields (such as Libra, sold to multinationals for a price that corresponded to 1% of its real value), the divestment plans and sales of the oil company’s assets (sale of the BR distributor and refineries), the policy of import parity prices, and the export of crude oil to buy refined oil, are examples of the bottom of the neocolonial pit into which the country was thrown by the governments of FHC, Lula, Dilma, PT, Temer and Bolsonaro. Therefore, oil exploitation in the Equatorial Margin, directly or indirectly, will represent more plunder of Brazil’s energy resources by world imperialism.
Oil exploration in the Equatorial Margin is a threat to climate and the Blue Amazon
But oil exploration will also contribute to global warming, caused by carbon emissions from burning oil. The consequences of warming are more than visible in heat waves, droughts, intense rains and devastating hurricanes, and if there is no drastic reduction in emissions, humanity will head towards climate collapse in this century.
In addition, exploration threatens the mouth of the Amazon River and the so-called “Blue Amazon”, characterized by extensive mangroves stretching from Amapá to Maranhão, which is the largest continuous stretch of mangroves on the planet and represents a huge “nursery” for countless marine species. Mangroves also play a key role in capturing greenhouse gases (GHGs) and have the incredible capacity to sequester twice as much carbon as the rainforest itself.
Brazil does not need this exploitation that will further enrich a few capitalists. It needs the development of new sources of renewable energy. This could be achieved by nationalizing all the country’s energy resources -including oil and electricity production- and using their revenues to guarantee investments and scientific research to ensure the energy transition. A 100% state-owned and worker-controlled Petrobras is necessary for the oil company to become a renewable energy company. To achieve this, it is necessary to confront the biggest enemies of the energy transition, which are the capitalists and private shareholders who rule Petrobras.
