By Brazil Stock Guide – Brazil’s National Confederation of Industry, known as CNI, filed a request to participate as an interested party in a civil lawsuit challenging oil exploration in the Equatorial Margin, according to a court filing. The case is before the Pará state judiciary and targets an auction that defined offshore blocks for oil and gas exploration in the region.
The request to join the case as amicus curiae was submitted on Tuesday (16). In its filing, the industry group argues that administrative decisions grounded in technical analysis should prevail over what it describes as broad, non-specialized assessments in highly complex matters.
CNI said the judiciary should act within its institutional limits and defer to technical determinations by public authorities, intervening only in cases of clear unreasonableness or manifest illegality.
“As a way to ensure legal certainty, the Judiciary must act, within the limits of its institutional capacity, with deference to the technical decisions of the public administration, and only interfere or review administrative acts in situations of evident lack of reasonableness or clear illegality,” said CNI’s legal director Alexandre Vitorino.
The confederation argues that blocking exploration activity would prevent Brazil from accessing resources it deems essential to address long-standing shortfalls in the implementation of social rights. It also warned that restrictions could undermine the country’s energy transition.
In the filing, CNI stated that there are no demarcated Indigenous lands within the auctioned areas. The document also cites technical studies estimating recoverable reserves of about 10 billion barrels of oil equivalent in the Equatorial Margin.