Brazil's Lula Hails Amazon Oil Find as "Passport to the Country's Future"
Brazilian state oil company Petrobras has confirmed an oil discovery off the mouth of the Amazon River, in a project that had already drawn strong opposition from environmental and Indigenous groups before drilling began.
Petrobras detected hydrocarbons at the Morpho exploration well, roughly 175 km off the coast of Amapá state in ultra-deep water, part of a region known as the Equatorial Margin. The company says a further two to three weeks of drilling are needed to determine the size of the find. Petrobras CEO Magda Chambriard said the result "confirms our findings" after years of exploration in the basin, which preliminary estimates suggest could hold up to 10 billion barrels of oil, worth an estimated $720 billion.
President Lula visited the Petrobras drilling vessel and called the discovery "a passport to this country's future," adding that he was "not denying" his commitment to eventually moving Brazil away from fossil fuels. His position has consistently been that oil revenue can help fund Brazil's transition to clean energy and support national energy security, rather than conflicting with it.
Drilling in the Equatorial Margin was only approved by Brazil's environmental regulator, Ibama, in October 2025, after the regulator had previously refused permission over concerns for Indigenous communities and the sensitive coastal ecosystem near the Amazon's mouth. Environmental and Indigenous groups have since taken legal action to try to halt exploration in the area, citing the risk any oil spill could pose to the surrounding marine environment.
The find also comes less than a year after Brazil hosted COP30, the UN climate summit, where the country positioned itself as a leading voice on climate action, adding to criticism that the decision to expand oil exploration sits uneasily alongside that role.