💸 Does oil bring development?

Oil means money in Brazil, but has it brought development?

In the small quilombo community of Patuazinho, in the northern Brazilian municipality of Oiapoque, threats and land invasions have become more and more common since 2023, when state-controlled oil company Petrobras stepped up its push to drill for oil off the nearby coast, and near the mouth of the Amazon River.

Mauriano Furtado, head of Patuazinho’s residents’ association, linked the increased cases of trespassing to real estate speculation. “With this pressure to drill for oil, these people are hoping Petrobras will come here, and [the trespassers] want to build lodgings, businesses and even equipment warehouses.”

Oiapoque is part of the northern Brazilian state of Amapá, and sits on the country’s border with French Guiana — being separated from the overseas department of France by the Oyapok River.

Oiapoque is also the closest piece of dry land to the notorious FZA-M-59, best known as Block 59, an oil exploration area located some 175 kilometers (109 miles) off Brazil’s northern coast and 500km from the mouth of the Amazon River.

Block 59 is still awaiting proper environmental licensing before Petrobras’s oil explorations can get underway, and it is seen as “the gateway” to the larger Equatorial Margin oil frontier.

Indeed, the most vociferous backers of oil exploration in Block 59 outside of Petrobras and the Mines and Energy Ministry are the federal politicians representing Amapá. Their cross-partisan message is that the royalties due from oil production off the state’s coast will lead to significant economic development for the people of Amapá.

But does that argument hold up?

🌳 Brazil Climate