TO DRILL or not to drill. That is the question hanging over the Foz do Amazonas basin, an oil-rich area of sea 120 kilometres from the mouth of the Amazon in Brazil.
As oil giants such as Total await a final decision from the Brazilian government on whether drilling can go ahead, environmentalists have stepped up their opposition.
Last week, Greenpeace argued that the coastlines of nearby islands 鈥� including Trinidad and Tobago and St Vincent 鈥� risked being inundated by oil spills, according to Total鈥檚 own environmental assessments.
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But Total told New 杏吧原创 that those claims relied on 鈥渉ypothetical鈥� scenarios that the Brazilian environment agency Ibama demanded they simulate, for locations 鈥渨here no actual drilling is planned鈥�.
鈥淐laims that nearby coastlines are at risk of oil spills rely on hypothetical models, says Total鈥�
Total says some models also showed what would happen if a spill was left untended for 60 days, which it says it would not do.
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淎mazon oil row鈥�