Brazil to auction oil exploration rights months before hosting Cop30

The Brazilian government is set to hold an oil exploration auction just months prior to the Cop30 UN climate summit, facing backlash from environmental activists and Indigenous groups concerned about the environmental and climate consequences of these initiatives. Brazil’s oil regulatory agency, ANP, plans to auction exploration rights for 172 oil and gas blocks covering 56,000 square miles (146,000 sq km), an area over twice the size of Scotland, primarily offshore.

The “doomsday auction,” as activists refer to it, encompasses 47 blocks in the Amazon basin, situated in a delicate region near the river’s mouth that fossil fuel firms view as a lucrative new oil frontier.

The auction is crucial to Brazil’s goal of becoming the fourth-largest oil producer globally, a vision endorsed by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who claims that oil profits will drive economic growth and support the energy transition.

However, a diverse array of groups, such as environmental advocates, federal prosecutors, and even unions of oil workers, are advocating for the cancellation of the bidding round, pointing to insufficient environmental assessments, breaches of Indigenous rights, and the discord between heightened oil production and Brazil’s climate obligations.

The International Energy Agency states that the establishment of new oil and gas fields contradicts global initiatives aimed at achieving net zero emissions by 2050. Brazil’s Instituto ClimaInfo has estimated that if production progresses for all 172 blocks available, the combustion of oil and gas could result in over 11 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent emissions—comparable to more than six years of emissions from the country’s harmful agribusiness sector, or 5% of the emissions that can still be produced globally to limit temperature rise to 1.5C.

The areas in the Amazon basin alone could release 4.7bn tonnes of CO₂ equivalent.

“This auction is posing really serious and grave threats for biodiversity, communities and climate,” said Nicole Figueiredo de Oliveira, the executive director of Instituto Internacional Arayara, a civil society organisation that has filed five lawsuits against next week’s auction.

Many oil exploration blocks have outdated environmental assessments, overlapping with Indigenous territories and conservation areas. Petrobras seeks drilling permits in the Amazon, facing opposition from Indigenous communities and environmental advocates warning of climate risks and unaddressed emissions.