Oct. 28 (UPI) -- Brazil's bid to turn the mouth of the Amazon River into a new oil frontier is facing institutional pushback.
While the national oil regulator recently awarded dozens of offshore blocks to Petrobras, ExxonMobil, Chevron Brazil and China's CNPC, the Public Prosecutor's Office is seeking to suspend the contracts and halt work on the first exploratory well.
It argues that mandatory social, environmental and climate impact studies were not conducted before the auctions and that potentially affected Indigenous communities were not consulted.
The Public Prosecutor's Office filed a court motion to suspend the results of the National Petroleum Agency's auction of 47 oil blocks and to freeze an environmental license granted to Petrobras to begin exploratory drilling.
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