Brazil’s Petrobras has started exploratory offshore drilling near the mouth of the Amazon River, an advance that has reshaped life on land in a remote northern city as migrants arrive and residents weigh promised jobs against environmental and infrastructure concerns.
In Oiapoque, residents described how news of the drilling licensing helped drive a surge in newcomers. Reginaldo Nunes Fonseca, who recently watched heavy rain in an area that had been rainforest a year earlier, said he moved after seeing a television report in January about the licensing, calling friends to ask them about work and deciding to leave Maranhao, where he said he was unemployed.
Fonseca’s hope is that Oiapoque will grow and create opportunities, but the city’s limited services are already being tested by what officials and residents describe as rapid, sometimes unplanned expansion. City councilman Tiago Vieira Araújo said that in the past 18 months Oiapoque has seen significant population growth, with seven new neighborhoods, adding social problems as the settlements spread.
The move toward offshore drilling centers on an area Petrobras secured for exploratory work in Brazil’s Equatorial Margin, about 180 kilometers (112 miles) off the Amapa coast. Petrobras representatives told a March 10 meeting with politicians, business owners and community leaders that exploratory drilling for a well began in October and was expected to last about five months, with any transition to extraction requiring further permits that could take months or years.
Even as officials described Oiapoque as a logistical hub for offshore crews, they also acknowledged that administrative operations tied to the drilling were based out of Belem, in the neighboring state of Para. The companies’ plans have nonetheless pushed speculation in Oiapoque, where residents said uncertainty about extraction has not stopped new arrivals from reshaping neighborhoods.
Local officials said Oiapoque’s growth is outpacing infrastructure. Brazilian government data cited in the report said less than 2% of households have adequate sewage systems and only 0.2% are on properly structured streets, and conditions in newly cleared settlements are described as worse, with people cutting public rainforest to create informal plots and building makeshift homes.
Despite criticism, some residents and political hopefuls have begun promoting a development model tied to oil revenue. Yuri Alesi, a lawyer who advocates for land rights in the new settlements and is running for vice mayor in a special election set for April, described his vision for Oiapoque as an “Amazonian Dubai,” saying “Dubai is in the middle of a desert, an unlikely place to grow,” and adding that the industry that drove its development was oil.
Alesi and other supporters point to believed reserves in the Equatorial Margin, from the Suriname border to Brazil’s northeast, and to expectations that royalties could bring monthly revenue to the city. Others, however, argue that past boom cycles in Amazon regions have not guaranteed lasting prosperity, citing oil and mining histories that ended in renewed hardship.
At the same time, opponents have focused on what they say are environmental and Indigenous consultation failures before drilling began. Environmental groups and Indigenous communities have sued the Brazilian government and Petrobras to halt exploration, arguing the licensing process failed to properly consult traditional communities, underestimated spill risks and did not adequately assess climate impacts. Federal prosecutors also sought to have IBAMA annul or suspend the environmental license, arguing Petrobras’ studies are insufficient and that the company is concealing the full extent of the environmental impact, and the report said no ruling has been issued.
Regulators and community members say risks are not hypothetical. Indigenous Galibi Kali’na leaders described the offshore activity as a threat to their way of life, warning that wetlands and rivers are difficult to clean if oil enters them. Renata Lod, a representative on the Indigenous council, said Petrobras arrived with political backing and promised progress, but that the reality has been “completely disorganized population growth, invasions of Indigenous lands,” adding that she and others fear oil could reach waterways because “Most Indigenous lands are flooded wetlands. How do you clean a wetland? Once oil enters the rivers, there’s no way to remove it.”
Petrobras has said it carried out spill modeling to secure the environmental license and began deploying drifting devices to monitor ocean currents since exploratory work began in October. The company has also faced regulatory action: in January it reported a drilling-fluid leak that briefly halted operations, and IBAMA fined Petrobras 2.5 million reais (about $470,500), according to the report.
At a riverfront port that links Brazil with French Guiana and local communities, local political messages promoting exploration and development were visible, but the opposition remains organized near the water and inside Indigenous territory. Across Oiapoque, residents described both the pull of possible employment and the concern that any benefits remain uncertain while risks and new strains on services are arriving first.
Photographer Eraldo Peres and video journalist Felipe Campos Mello contributed to this report.