Regional environmental agency Ibama recommended that Petrobras’ proposal to drill in the Amazon River Basin be denied. Credit: Ivars Utināns on Unsplash.

Petrobras may relocate a rig it has built to drill at the mouth of the Amazon River Basin to another site if it does not get environmental clearance to operate there, reported Reuters.

The company’s executive director of exploration and production Joelson Mendes made the comments after the technical team of regional environmental agency Ibama recently recommended that Petrobras’ proposal to drill in the area be denied.

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“We are ready to drill, but a permit is necessary,” Mendes said, adding that: “We are waiting for the permission.”

The executive make the remarks on the sidelines of the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston.

Petrobras, which is backed by the Brazilian government, has stated that it will wait for the Government of Brazil to decide because it will have the final say in the situation.

According to Mendes, the state-run oil company has a “plan B” of moving the rig to the Potiguar Basin in northern Brazil if the permission is denied.

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“We have an alternative,” the executive said, adding that the Pitu Oeste well would be the first to receive the rig if the new plan was implemented.

The Pitu Oeste and Anhanga wells in the state of Rio Grande do Norte will be targeted for drilling if the permit application is denied, the company said in a statement to the news agency following Mendes’ comments.

Drilling at those sites would also require clearance from Ibama.

Earlier this week, Petrobras said it has abandoned plans to sell its stake in the Tayrona block, which is located off the coast of Colombia.