Brazil | Government denies bid to drill for oil near recently discovered reef near mouth of Amazon
Brazil’s environmental regulatory agency, Ibama, announced last Friday that it was denying French oil company Total license to drill for oil near the Amazon Reef.
The reef system, discovered off the coast of Amapá state in northern Brazil in 2016, is known as the Amazon Reef because it lies in the turgid waters of the Atlantic Ocean close to the mouth of the Amazon River. The system of corals, sponges, and a colorful marine algae that resembles coral called rhodoliths extends from French Guiana to Brazil’s Maranhão State and encompasses 9,500 square kilometers (nearly 3,700 square miles.