Petrobras confirmed on Monday that it has found oil at the Morpho well in the Foz do Amazonas basin, off the coast of Amapá in Brazil's far north. The company's chief executive, Magda Chambriard, announced it at a press conference in Oiapoque attended by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
The confirmation follows an announcement on Friday that hydrocarbons had been identified in block FZA-M-59, about 175 kilometres off the Amapá coast in 2,886 metres of water. At that point the company would say only that this was a first indication of oil or gas; it could not yet call it a discovery.
Now it can, and it still cannot put a number on it. "There is oil, there is a discovery. We still do not know how much," Chambriard said, adding that the company would keep investing and exploring and that the future would say what Amapá could offer.
The Foz do Amazonas is the most contested exploration frontier in Brazil. Drilling near the mouth of the Amazon has been fought over for years between the oil industry and environmental regulators, and a president standing beside the rig announcement is itself part of the story.
Why it is on the board
It was the most-read story on g1 in Brazil. What g1's piece leads with is not the size of the find, because there is no size yet — it leads with the confirmation and with who was standing there when it was made.
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