FILE - Fuel reservoirs sit at a distribution center for state-run oil company Petrobras, in Brasilia, Brazil, May 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres, File)
Head of Brazil’s gas giant Petrobras criticized for ‘drill, baby, drill!’ comment about the Amazon
SAO PAULO (AP) 鈥 The head of Brazil’s state-run gas and oil giant Petrobras was facing criticism on Friday after a video emerged of her saying 鈥淒rill, baby, drill!鈥 when speaking about controversial oil exploration near the mouth of the Amazon River.
FILE - Fuel reservoirs sit at a distribution center for state-run oil company Petrobras, in Brasilia, Brazil, May 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres, File)
SAO PAULO (AP) 鈥 The head of Brazil’s state-run gas and oil giant Petrobras was facing criticism on Friday after a video emerged of her saying 鈥淒rill, baby, drill!鈥 when speaking about controversial oil exploration near the mouth of the Amazon River.
made the remarks Tuesday during the Offshore Technology Conference, in Houston. In a video obtained by the Brazilian newspaper Valor Economico and published Friday, Chambriard is seen addressing Cl茅cio Lu铆s, governor of the Amazonian state of Amapa, who was in the audience.
鈥淲e do believe we will have very good surprises once we have the (environmental) license to drill. So what one wants to say to Amapa is, 鈥楲et鈥檚 drill, baby, drill!鈥” Her comments prompted a round of applause, including from Lu铆s.
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Petrobras did not immediately respond to an email request for comment. The company confirmed the authenticity of the video, according to Valor Economico.
U.S. President Donald Trump has long used the phrase 鈥淒rill, baby, drill!鈥 in expressing support for increased oil exploration and production.
鈥淭he 鈥榣et鈥檚 drill, baby鈥 rhetoric may comfort industry leaders and short-sighted policymakers, but history will remember them as the ones who buried the 1.5 C goal,” said Natalie Unterstell, president of Talanoa, a climate policy think tank, referring to the internationally adopted aim to keep warming under 1.5 C since pre-industrial times.
Climate change is caused by the release of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide. Oil, from exploration to its various uses, is a central driver of climate change.
Chambriard was appointed by Brazil’s leftist President , whose environmental record in the Amazon is mixed. While he has curbed deforestation and championed the the host of the U.N.‘s COP30 climate summit in November, he also push to drill for offshore oil at the ecologically sensitive mouth of the Amazon River and other big projects that bring environmental impact to the world麓s largest tropical forest.
Exploratory offshore drilling near the Amazon, whose reserves are unknown, is expected to draw scrutiny during the COP30 summit. A central push of the annual climate talks has been to reduce the use of fossil fuels such as oil, gas and coal.
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