Exxon Restates Brazil Oil Interest, Amazon Blocks Still Lack Drilling Licence

BRAZIL · ENERGY

ExxonMobil says it wants a share of Brazil’s next oil chapter, but its ten Foz do Amazonas blocks still have no drilling licence.

ExxonMobil told an oil conference in Rio de Janeiro on 22 September 2026 that it wants a role in Brazil’s next chapter. The Exxon Brazil oil interest is concrete: ten Foz do Amazonas blocks held with Petrobras, none of them licensed.

What ExxonMobil Actually Said in Rio

Hunter Farris, ExxonMobil’s senior vice president for deepwater, spoke on 22 September 2026 at the ROG.e conference in Rio de Janeiro. ROG.e is Brazil’s main oil and gas event, organised by the Brazilian Petroleum and Gas Institute (IBP).

“We want to be a part of the next chapter that’s going to be written in Brazil,” Farris said. He added that the company believes it can “bring something unique to that equation”.

Farris gave no investment figure, no drilling plan and no timetable for Brazil. He pointed instead to Guyana, where Exxon output should pass one million barrels a day this year.

He described Brazil’s northern offshore as a promising neighbourhood with similar geology to Guyana. That was the extent of it: an expression of interest, not an announcement.

ROG.e runs until 24 September at the Riocentro venue in Rio. Organisers expected about 70,000 people across the week.

Exxon Brazil Oil Interest Rests on Ten Blocks

Exxon Brazil oil interest is not new. The two companies won ten Foz do Amazonas blocks on 17 June 2025, at an auction held by Brazil’s oil regulator.

That regulator is the National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels, or ANP. Petrobras confirmed the result the same day in a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Each partner holds 50%. Petrobras operates five of the blocks and ExxonMobil operates the other five, and the contracts were signed on 5 December 2025.

The five Exxon-operated blocks are FZA-M-477, FZA-M-547, FZA-M-549, FZA-M-619 and FZA-M-621. No well has yet been drilled on any of the ten.

The Licensing Queue Is the Real Obstacle

Petrobras says the ten blocks are waiting on environmental approval. Sylvia Anjos, its exploration and production director, made that point at ROG.e on 21 September 2026.

She said the company had waited more than a decade for a licence on its own nearby acreage. It now needs approvals for the ten Exxon blocks too, she said.

Brazil’s environmental regulator is Ibama. It has issued no drilling licence for any of the ten Exxon-Petrobras blocks.

TotalEnergies gave up five Foz do Amazonas blocks in 2020 after years of trying to obtain licences. Its executives said in Rio that it has no plan to return.

Chevron and China’s CNPC won nine further blocks in the same basin at that 2025 auction. They hold no drilling licence either.

What Petrobras Is Actually Drilling

The only drilling in the basin is on block FZA-M-59, which Petrobras holds on its own. Ibama licensed the Morpho well there on 20 October 2025.

Petrobras said on 14 August 2026 that it had found hydrocarbons at Morpho, about 175 kilometres off Amapá state. The well sits in 2,886 metres of water.

On 3 September 2026 Ibama signed a change to that licence covering three more wells. They are named Manga, Crotalus and Morpho Extensão.

Renata Baruzzi, Petrobras engineering director, said Morpho should finish in October. Drilling of the three extra wells should begin in January 2027, she told reporters.

A different drillship will take over for the new wells. It must first be cleaned of sun coral, an invasive species.

Petrobras has not said whether the Morpho find is commercial. The three extra wells are meant to answer that question.

Why This Matters for Expats and Investors

For investors, the gap between interest and drilling is the whole story. A conference remark is not a permit, a budget or a final investment decision.

Exxon has announced no spending for Brazil’s northern offshore. Petrobras has budgeted US$2.5 billion for the region from 2026 to 2030, covering 15 wells.

Signing bonuses at the June 2025 auction reached R$989.3 million (US$193.6 million). That uses 23 September 2026 rates of about 5.11 reais to the dollar.

Ibama set the environmental compensation for the four-well programme at R$16.5 million (US$3.2 million). That licence runs six years from October 2025.

What is not known is when, or whether, Ibama will license the ten blocks. Jobs, port work and supplier contracts in northern Brazil rest on that answer.

What to Watch Next

ANP holds its next licensing sessions on 7 October 2026, covering two permanent offer cycles. The published sequence lists 22 sectors across nine basins, none of them Foz do Amazonas.

Chevron, which won nine blocks in the basin with China’s CNPC in 2025, has contracted a seismic survey there. Federal prosecutors are still challenging the FZA-M-59 licence in court.

The next hard facts will come from Ibama’s decisions and from the wells themselves. Until then, Exxon Brazil oil interest remains a statement of intent.

More: Brazil news in English, every day from The Rio Times.

Frequently Asked Questions

What did ExxonMobil say in Rio?

Hunter Farris, its senior vice president for deepwater, said the company wants to be part of Brazil’s next oil chapter. He gave no investment plan or timetable.

Does Exxon hold blocks off the Amazon coast?

Yes. Exxon and Petrobras won ten Foz do Amazonas blocks in June 2025, split evenly, with five operated by each. None is licensed for drilling.

When could drilling start on those blocks?

No date has been set. Petrobras expects to drill three wells on its own block FZA-M-59 from January 2027, under a separate licence.

Sources: ExxonMobil remarks at ROG.e 2026, Rio de Janeiro, 22 September 2026, via BNamericas and Agência iNFRA; Petrobras filings to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, 17 June 2025 and 14 August 2026; ANP; Ibama via Metrópoles; Valor Econômico; InfoMoney; eixos.