The Federal Police (PF) has concluded investigations into the oil spill that affected more than a thousand locations on the coast of Brazil in the second half of 2019. According to the PF, a Greek oil tanker was responsible for the crime. “The company, which did not have its name revealed, had its owners, the captain and the ship’s chief engineer indicted for the practice of the crimes of pollution, breach of environmental obligation and damage to conservation units (articles 40, 54 and 68 of Law 9.605/98),” indicated a G1 story.

At the time of the incident, President Jair Bolsonaro and former Environment Minister Ricardo Salles publicly accused the NGO Greenpeace and Venezuela of involvement in the crime, considered the most extensive in area in the country. 

Only five of the 92 areas offered for extraction of oil and natural gas in the 17th Auction Round of exploratory blocks by the National Oil Agency (ANP) were sold, all in the Santos Basin, off the coast of São Paulo. Despite the failure, the general director of the ANP, Rodolfo Saboia, called the auction “a success”.

The 17th round of the ANP has been the target of intense protests by scientists, environmentalists and state governments, as 14 of the areas offered are close to the vital marine sanctuaries for Brazil’s reef ecosystem, such were the cases of Fernando de Noronha, Pernambuco state, and Atol das Rocas, Rio Grande do Norte. The Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio) considered, via a technical note, “reckless” to include the Potiguar Basin (RN) region in the auction.

The environmental threat was identified as one of the reasons for the low interest from bidders. “The best definition of this auction is high risk: discovery risk, logistical risk, environmental risk” stated Magda Chambriard, former director general of the ANP, to the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo.

The pollution caused by the oil patches that reached over 1000 locations on the Brazilian coast lingers six months after the mysterious environmental disaster that struck the country in 2019. In the Northeast, the most affected area, federal university researchers say that even though the patches are no longer visible, the sea remains polluted and it will take some time before the researchers can properly assess the damages. Investigations are stalled, and the origin of the oil spillage remains unknown. According to authorities, there is little hope that the federal police will find the culprit.

According to the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama), 1,004 locations were affected so far by the oil spillage that started in August. 570 of them are already clean and 434 still show traces of contamination.

The investigations about the origin and culprits of the oil spill continue open and inconclusive after five months.

A study by the Biology Institute of the Federal  University of Bahia (UFBA)  showed that after the oil spill, the coral mortality on the coast of Bahia increased ten fold. According to the researchers, the bleaching rate for the corals, which is usually around 5% -6% of the organisms per year, is now in 52% in the studied regions. The study also detected  impacts on biodiversity of species; before the oil, there was an average number of 88 species; after, the number fell to 47.

The oil spill that affected the Northeast since the end of August arrived in the State of Rio de Janeiro. Ibama and the navy have confirmed that the patches spotted in the municipality of São João da Barra were the same crude oil found in another 10 states. The latest report accounts for 724 localities affected in 11 states.

The number of beaches, rivers, islands and mangroves affected by the oil spill continued to rise and reached the mark of 695 locations, according to the latest IBAMA assessment.  At least  117 municipalities from 10 states were affected by  the oil since August 30th.

Oil patches arrived for the first time in the Southeast coast of Brazil, in São Mateus, Espirito Santo State. The Navy confirmed it is the same crude oil that has been polluting beaches in the Northeast since the end of August. By then, more than 400 beaches in 10 states had been affected by the oil.

The Federal Police carried operations with search warrants at a maritime agency that would be the representative of the Bouboulina ship – a potential suspect of the oil spill that is contaminating the Northeast. The Greek flagged Bouboulina vessel belongs to Delta Tankers, who in Brazil employed Lachmann Maritime Services as representative. The investigation used  satellite imagery in retrospect to locate the ship  and the origin of the crude oil. According to  the inquiry, there is no indication of another ship  that could have leaked or spilled crude oil coming from Venezuela. The Federal Prosecution Office informed that the estimate is that 2,500 tons of crude oil were spilled on the sea. They also claimed to have strong evidence that the ship’s captain and crew did not alert the competent authorities about the oil spill in the Atlantic Ocean.

On a live streaming on YouTube, President Bolsonaro once again called the oil spill a “criminal act” and that the government has known and worked on it for the past two months.

Together with the National Secretary of Fishery on the video, they assured that fishing is not  forbidden in the affected  areas. “There is no  notification about  contaminations. The few we received were  about people covered in some oil  that used remover to  clean up,” the Fishery Secretary said, adding: “The fish is a smart animal. When he sees an oil patch there,  Captain (referring to president Bolsonaro), he  escapes, he is scared. So obviously you can eat your little  fish with  no worries; lobster, shrimp, all perfectly sane”, in another epic moment for the Brazilian internet. 

President Bolsonaro agreed with the Secretary of Fishery, complementing: “Obviously, sometimes, a turtle gets caught there in the oil patch – not to say that nothing happens right? One fish, one dolphin, it might happen, but it’s fine”. 

President Bolsonaro also affirmed that the investigations continue and that “it  is more than proven that the oil is from Venezuela. Maybe the  ‘left’ will  attack me because I said that”. He promised that, despite his busy agenda, he would visit the affected areas and “take a dive somewhere”. 

Still streaming, the president jumped on, to once again,  talk about how he plans to revoke the conservation status for the Angra dos Reis Bay, where he fantasizes of the “Brazilian Cancun” to attract foreign investors.

Since the beginning of the oil spill crisis, federal universities and research centers have played an important role in the monitoring, analysing and supporting of the cleaning efforts, often standing in opposition to the official narrative of “it’s not so bad, you can eat the fish, everything is under control” adopted by the government. Researchers from Federal University of Bahia (UFBA) said that the monitoring of the affected areas need to be sustained for years to come, with periodic, constant analysis, to make sure people are not going into intoxicated zones. Another UFBA researcher said that governments do not want to call much attention because a case like this affects tourism, but there are health issues, both to who goes to the beaches and to those that make a living fishing in these regions”.

A research group at UFBA investigated 38 marine animals from the spill  areas and found oil in their digestive systems; although the level of  toxicity was not yet clear, health officials advised people to avoid consuming fish and seafood from the affected regions. Researchers made clear that the damage is serious and will last decades. 

By November, there was research about the oil spill ongoing at Federal Universities in Pernambuco,  Rio de Janeiro, Ceará, Alagoas and Bahia. The engagement of the Federal Universities and public research centers  is especially relevant as they have also been a target of the dismantling, anti-science policies of Bolsonaro’s presidency, facing budget cuts above 30% and being targeted by fake news coming from the Ministry of Education.  

The Minister of Environment took to Twitter to diffuse fake news amid the oil spill crisis. He posted a picture of the Greenpeace ship MV Esperanza along with a text that read: “There are coincidences in life…It seems that the #greenpixe ship was fitly sailing international waters in front of the Brazilian coast right around the time of the venezuelan oil spill…”. 

The infamous tweet generated a lot of backlash towards the Minister. Deputy Rodrigo Maia, President of the Chamber of Deputies, also used Twitter to challenge Minister Salles on presenting an official position about the accusation. Salles then responded Maia by attacking Greenpeace from a different angle: “the Greenpeace ship confirmed that it sailed close to the Brazilian coast by the time the Venezuelan oil showed up, and, just like their members on land, did not engage to help”. 

Later on the same day, Greenpeace  published a note clarifying that the ship was en route from the Caribbean to Uruguay and announced that the filing of a diffamation criminal complaint against Minister Salles at a Federal court.

On a live streaming on Facebook on the 18th, president Bolsonaro raised  the possibility that the oil spill affecting the  Northeast may have been done on purpose, aiming to jeopardize the mega oil auction scheduled to happen in November. Sitting with the Minister of Defense, Bolsonaro said: “Coincidence or not, we have an upcoming auction (…).  I ask myself, and we have to be  responsible when we  speak up: could it have been a criminal action to affect this auction? The question is  up in the air“. He once again affirmed that the origin of the oil is Venezuela.  

On the same day, the Federal Prosecution Office filed an action asking Justice to oblige the Federal Government to activate the National Contingency Plan for Oil Pollution Incidents within 24 hours. The urgent request aimed at increasing the efforts to combat the oil spill affecting the Northeast, as MPF considered the government “omissive, inert, ineffective and inefficient ” with regards to the incident. One of the reasonable explanations for the delays and limitations of the government’s response might be in the fact that, earlier in April, president Bolsonaro extinguished, via the presidential decree that deleted several social councils and expert chambers, two technical committees responsible for implementing the National Contingency Plan for Oil Pollution Incidents.

By mid-October, a  IBAMA report showed that 178 beaches in 72 different  cities in all 9 Northeast states had been affected by the crude oil patches. They also reported about finding 29 marine animals with oil, of which 15 turtles and 2  seabirds. The oil spill was classified as the largest  environmental accident in the country in terms of extension, with 2,100 km of oil patches from Bahia to Maranhão.

Ibama’s president confirmed during a hearing at the Senate that the crude oil spilled in the Northeast originated in Venezuela. “This oil is Venezuelan. The DNA is Venezuelan. It’s a certainty, it’s an affirmation, it’s not speculation. Does it mean that Venezuela is responsible for the spill? No, this is another matter,” he said. On the same day, oil patches reached parts of the Coral Coast Environmental Protected Area, the largest coastal conservation unit in Brazil. The 400,000 hectares area is located between Northeast states of Alagoas and Pernambuco, with 120 km of beaches and mangroves. A 3m diameter oil patch was  spotted arriving in the region, the largest  patch detected so far. A task force with local residents,  city, state and federal personnel  installed contention barriers and did clean up work  on  the beaches.

Under increasing pressure to solve the origin of the oil spill and work harder on contention measures in the Northeast, president Bolsonaro chose irony to attack NGOs on a tweet about the matter: “Since September 02 our government is trying to identify who is responsible for the oil spill in the beaches of  the Northeast. We are worried about the unusual silence of the UN and the NGOs, always so attentive to the environment”.

On October 5th, president Bolsonaro ordered the investigation of the causes of the oil spill in the Northeast. The investigations are being done by the Federal Police, Ministry of Defense, Ibama and ICMBio. When announcing the inquiry, he said: “It might be criminal, it might be an accidental spill, it can be a sunken ship as well. It’s complex. We have, in our radar, a country that can be the origin of the crude oil. Apparently the leak is not coming from an oil platform”. The president also recognized the negative impacts for tourism, a key economic activity for the  Northeast in the  coming summer. By October 7th, the oil patches had affected 132 localities, in 61  different  municipalities in all 9 Northeast states.

After several weeks of being ignored by the mainstream media and minimized by the federal government, the mysterious oil patches that started appearing in different beaches in the Northeast of the country in late August finally made national headlines. 

The first patches of crude oil were seen on August  30th  in Paraiba state; then, on September  2nd, the spill was spotted in Pernambuco state. By September 26, 99 localities in 46 different municipalities from 8 Northeast states had been affected according to IBAMA. By then, investigations had already shown that all the samples of crude oil shared the same origin but were unable to identify the source of the spill. Petrobras clarified that Brazil does not produce crude oil.