Gas and Oil Plant of Urucu in the Amazon rainforest
DRILLING FOR OIL IN THE AMAZON These photographs depict the Petrobras operation in the Amazon rainforest and the typical Ribeirinhos, or river people, who inhabit the town of Coari. In 1986 Petrobras, Brazil’s national oil company discovered a commercially viable deposit of oil and natural gas in the heart of the Amazon Basin. Today the drilling plant of Urucu is in full operation some 370 miles from Manaus, the capitol of Amazonas State. The plant generates enough gas and oil to supply the needs of every household in northern Brazil, however, the lack of a pipeline for their distribution forces the company to re-inject most of the fossil fuel back into the subsoil. Recently, due to a dispute over gas prices imported from a neighboring country, the Brazilian government decided to reconsider a project to build a vast pipeline crisscrossing the Amazon rainforest. Petrobras is known for its commitment to preservation of the Amazon rainforest’s delicate environment. The company maintains a plantation with 200,000 seedlings of Amazonian plants, which are used to replenish the forest. However, according to an article published in the NEW YORK TIMES of January 21 2007 some environmental groups have questioned the sincerity of the company's efforts in the face of social, environmental, and economic damages accompanying the construction of a pipeline cutting across a large portion of pristine rainforest. Currently, some of the gas produced at the plant of Urucu is being transported via a relatively short pipeline to the town of Coari, where it is loaded into ships and brought to the port of Manaus for distribution.
