The page you are looking for might have been removed 43,000+ global companies doing business in the region 102,000+ key contacts related to companies and projects news and interviews about your industry in English O endereço abaixo não existe na globo.com Barcarena – a traditional Quilombola territory in Pará – saw little of the development promised when the industrial complex was established with several mining enterprises — especially Imerys and Albras Alunorte a Norwegian company currently known as Norsk Hydro when the federal government — then a military dictatorship — created the Barcarena Development Company (CODEBAR) in charge of implementing the industrial complex the territory underwent changes so companies could operate according to the demands of a market driven by a government that was in a hurry to turn the Amazon into an asset that would only benefit mining companies and their projects — which were harmful to the environment and life in addition to charges of environmental crimes Despite evidence provided by scholars and the population affected Norsk Hydro has categorically denied any involvement the area where the municipality is located used to be Quilombola territory The oldest document confirming land tenure dates from 1986 It says that the Pará Land Institute holds the rights over the land through acquirer Manoel Joaquim dos Santos a predecessor of the main Quilombola leaders who now struggle for the right to exist in the territory who is now the leader of the Gibrié do São Lourenço Quilombo invasion by mining companies was possible only because CODEBAR did not have a land policy for the area it was hard to move forward with negotiations but those who didn’t were done,” he tells Mongabay is now their weapon to recover the lands expropriated by CODEBAR at the time “They won’t let us have the titles because then they wouldn’t be able to sell the land or negotiate it in the future,” says Bubuia “There are more than 300 families struggling to exist.” is one of the main Quilombola leaders in Barcarena He says his people face problems that go beyond contamination by mining companies He tells Mongabay there is a consortium including the municipal government and mining companies which dates back to the beginning of Barcarena’s growth process and is led by CODEBAR which completely ignored the existence of Quilombola territories the first invasion happened in the district of Vila dos Cabanos where facilities were built to accommodate mining companies’ top staff Even the schools began to be attended only by the children of the companies’ employees is that these lands historically belonged to the Quilombola — including the area where the 14th Military (State) Police Battalion is now located “If you do archaeological research in these areas where the Battalion and the Cabanos Club are located you’ll will find artifacts that prove our previous presence in this area,” says Chip the Barcarena municipal government acted in bad faith at the time for it was aware of the process of land mapping and demarcation being carried out by INCRA (Brazil’s National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform) in favor of the Quilombola communities the city built a wall around the area that had been set for titling which made it impossible for us to access it,” Chip explains “They built it in record time and put a sign there that says it was a preservation area owned by the municipality of Barcarena The city invaded the land that INCRA had guaranteed was ours.” The latest arbitrary decision by the Barcarena municipal government was the attempt by the company Águas de São Francisco to vacate an area where a sewage treatment unit operated in Quilombola territory evicting families from the place at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic was at its deadliest But Supreme Court Justice Edson Fachin ruled in favor of the families saying it was an area over which neither the city nor the water and sanitation company were able to prove ownership which took an aggressive stance toward those families and even lied on TV and social media saying that locals wanted the land to sell it,” says Chip and their houses were demolished with their furniture inside Damiana Oliveira dos Santos noticed a hairless spot on her daughter Rebeca’s head The girl’s curly hair was falling out and had been replaced by sores She and her husband took their daughter to the hospital in the state capital Belém she discovered that the girl’s head was also full of rashes The whole community cried when they saw that our daughter and I were bald,” she tells Mongabay at her home less than two miles from Hydro’s industrial complex but nobody would tell us what those numbers meant What they now know — and studies prove — is that everything in Barcarena — people water and fish — shows signs of contamination The origin most likely is the chemical waste dumped by mining companies in the local rivers lead and nickel are some of the metals present in medical reports from institutes such as Evandro Chagas and labs such as the Laboratory of Analytical and Environmental Chemistry (LAQUANAM) at the Federal University of Pará (UFPA) thin brittle skin and several cases of cancer Norsk Hydro denies these cases are related to its operation Professor Simone de Fátima Pinheiro Pereira has conducted research in the mining area for more than 40 years and has closely monitored the environmental crimes committed in Barcarena for 15 years at the request of the Federal Prosecution Service it analyzed the water used for consumption in the region and 24 of them were contaminated by lead,” she tells Mongabay river sediment: Everything I collected for analysis was contaminated I also analyzed community residents’ hair and found levels 27 times above our control,” she says comparing samples with people outside the area covered by the study Pereira reports that the two companies causing the worst impacts on that region are Hydro and Imerys a bauxite waste deposit installed near Quilombola communities The dam has been decommissioned but millions of tons of toxic red mud are still there the mud overflows and goes into the surrounding rivers — Murucupi and Pará — carrying metals such as chromium lead and nickel — all of which are carcinogenic if people are exposed to them for a long time “I went to Hydro to collect red mud for analysis at the request of the Federal Prosecution Service but they won’t let me disclose the results,” Pereira says “Even with an order from the prosecution service they threatened me with a lawsuit if I analyzed the samples but I had to sign a nondisclosure agreement Hydro is all over the world and a lawsuit is nothing for them.” “My husband was supposed to be here with me I saw my husband lose one foot and end up in a wheelchair because of this unchecked development,” says Maria do Socorro Costa da Silva she is one of the most important leaders in Barcarena She shows the reports from the Evandro Chagas Institute and UFPA that found high levels of heavy metals in her hair and she tells what happened to her husband whose diabetes worsened with the contamination: “He started scratching his eyes but we continued using the water until people from the university came to carry out tests on us we had official confirmation that the water was contaminated This struggle has been going on for 10 years Socorro herself scratches her body a lot while talking to the reporters and says that part of Barcarena’s population is like her now She took the Quilombola claims beyond the borders of Pará and Brazil by filing a collective lawsuit on behalf of 40,000 people affected by aluminum production where the Court of Rotterdam will hear it and decide on its merits Mongabay contacted Norsk Hydro about the lawsuit and the company replied “The case filed in the Netherlands is related to local issues which are already being discussed in Brazilian courts The case is just a derivative of the same accusations against Brazilian entities Hydro will present its defense in accordance with the procedures defined by the Court.” Hydro added that it “strongly denies the allegations made by the plaintiffs The company is committed to being a good neighbor environment and safety first wherever it operates Alunorte’s and Albras’ activities in the region are duly licensed and operations are monitored and audited by the authorities.” Mongabay has also sent questions to the Barcarena municipal government but has not received a response as of this writing The “fortress conservation” model is under pressure in East Africa as protected areas become battlegrounds over history and global efforts to halt biodiversity loss Mongabay’s Special Issue goes beyond the region’s world-renowned safaris to examine how rural communities and governments are reckoning with conservation’s colonial origins and trying to forge a path forward […] Please read our republishing guidelines to get started The Vila do Conde complex at Barcarena Port, which bears the scars of industrial development, will be the final stop of a new Chinese-backed railway (Image: Programa de Aceleraçaõ do Crescimento) Sandra Amorim’s family has lived on the same patch of land in the eastern Brazilian Amazon now she is surrounded by the sounds and sights of industrial development The expansion of a nearby port in Barcarena a municipality in the north of Pará state across the water from the city of Belém has clashed with many traditional communities With a new Chinese-financed railway expected to boost development Barcarena is home to the Vila do Conde port that will be the final stop on the Pará Railway a stretch of tracks running 492km up from the city of Marabá China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) signed a statement of intent with Pará’s government to invest R$7 billion (US$1.6 billion) in the railway the largest foreign infrastructure investment in Brazil The bulk of the railroad’s cargo will be iron ore the railway will extend further south to the city of Santana do Araguaia and link to a country-wide network of tracks that run to Rio Grande do Sul in the far south grains and cattle will be carted in and shipped to the world from the port’s strategic position near the mouth of the Amazon Pará’s government says the railway will further stimulate its economy, bringing jobs and raising income. It will lower transportation costs and increase productivity in mining operations, including at Carajás where Brazilian mining giant Vale digs some 120 million tonnes of metal per year from the world largest open iron ore pit New metal processing facilities will generate higher profits still CCCC and Vale are also investing R$1.8bn (US$410 million) in a steel rolling mill in Marabá the railway will exacerbate conflict in a place where the petrol stations and workers’ houses that have swelled the Vila do Conde industrial complex to 4 million m2 since its establishment in the 1980s Pará already bears the scars of industrial development a freighter bound for Venezuela capsized on leaving the port spilling hundreds of gallons of fuel and leaving hundreds of dying cattle on Barcarena’s beaches to rot in the sun heavy rains led to a chemical spill at Alunorte owned by Norwegian metals company Norsk Hydro Norsk Hydro denied responsibility for the spill and Alunorte recently resumed full production But Barcarena’s communities don’t eat local fish anymore and only drink bottled water Faced with a changing world and pressure to leave every year tens of thousands of trucks move tirelessly along potholed roads leading into the port swirling up clouds of dust from the reddish ground into the hot At the entrance to the Africa quilombo (Afro-descendant community settlements) a young boy standing on a small wooden bridge fishes in a stream The railroad tracks will cross through neighbouring quilombos but Africa residents say they will be still be affected Barcarena is 18km away but its expanding footprint is already palpable A nearby water processing plant that recently arrived extracts water from the same streams powerlines and hospitals will be built nearby With so many strange people passing through The idea that huge infrastructure projects will benefit everyone is simply not true and increasing levels of crime and marginalisation.” The railroad will pass through 23 municipalities, crossing through or close to several quilombo communities and smallholder farming plots, and two indigenous villages. Pará’s government has said the line will be adjusted to affect people as little as possible People living ten kilometres from the tracks will receive compensation payments But nature doesn’t respect the arbitrary limits used in impact plans and those lying outside them will still feel the impacts: “Does water respect ten kilometre [limits] Does contaminated land respect ten kilometres?” Giffoni also says that local communities weren’t consulted about the railway before the State government announced the plans Researchers say the railway will increase deforestation by opening up previously inaccessible land “The tendency is that where you have embarking points you have expanding deforestation,” says Paulo Barreto Further forest loss will result from increased mining activities which can triple deforestation rates across the Amazon basin an environmental scientist at Australia’s University of Queensland Deforestation stretched up to 70km outside the confines of major projects mining-induced deforestation accounted for 9% of total Amazon deforestation Pará holds 3% of the world’s deposits of iron ore, copper, bauxite, gold, and other minerals, according to the state government The Pará Railroad dovetails with plans to boost mining which accounts for a quarter of the state’s GDP The number of mining cities will grow from 55 to 80 mining is projected to bring in US$30 billion regional biodiversity would be also affected by deforestation forest fragmentation and the risk of invasive species: “Environmental impact assessments often underestimate the negative impacts of mining on biodiversity purely because they don’t examine the indirect impacts that emerge at broader scales.” lowering transport costs will fuel the continued expansion of the beef industry one of the main drivers of Brazilian Amazonian deforestation a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at Boston University’s Global Development Policy Center China’s demand for beef is surging and it is looking to import more from Brazil the Brazilian government is making a choice of development strategy Once the railway is connected to adjacent networks soy will also become cheaper and faster to draw up through the country Chinese demand for Brazilian soy has “skyrocketed” in recent years especially since the onset of trade tensions with the US Brazilian exports of soy to China nearly doubled “Traditional agro-industrial and mining interests will benefit while the communities who have suffered from the environmental impacts of those interests will suffer more,” Ray says According to Edna Castro, a sociologist at the Federal University of Pará, the railway fits into a wider dynamic of development happening in the state and elsewhere in the Amazon. Over thirty new ports are planned, along with works to support water transportation, and new power lines Once forest is cleared and the land is no longer suitable for grazing transforming Pará into major producer in a few years’ time CCCC’s investment in strengthening food and other raw material supply lines has caused controversy in a number of international projects The company has been linked with a series conflicts in the past where local communities were hit by dredging destruction of coral reefs and eroded land during construction of the Port City Colombo development the World Bank blacklisted CCCC after alleged fraudulent bidding practices on a highway in the Philippines Ray doesn’t think the blame for any social and environmental fallout should fall squarely on the Chinese Her research suggests Chinese investors like CCCC adhere to host country environmental and social regulations in attempts to avoid diplomatic disputes having accepted the environmental and social consequences of that choice,” she says Amorim often glances at her fence. So many new faces have arrived in the area, it’s hard to know who might be coming, she says. Police regularly stop by her house after she received death threats. She has been assaulted near her home three times and laments the rising crime, prostitution and murder that the influx of outsiders have brought to Barcarena Richard Kemeney is a freelance journalist based in Brazil Select from our bespoke newsletters for news best suited to you We’ve sent you an email with a confirmation link 我们向您的邮箱发送了一封确认邮件，请点击邮件中的确认链接。如果您未收到该邮件，请查看垃圾邮件。 If you would like more information about the terms of our republication policy or permission to use content, please write to us: [email protected] We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. By continuing to use our site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies. 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The facility, comprising an offshore terminal and FSRU, will cater to various industrial clients, including a 15-year contract with Norsk Hydro’s Alunorte refinery the terminal aims to reduce emissions and pollution in the environmentally sensitive Amazon region by offering a cleaner and reliable alternative to oil-based fuels NFE anticipates immediate natural gas delivery to Norsk Hydro’s Alunorte refinery under the 15-year gas supply agreement. The supply will amount to approximately 30 TBtus of natural gas annually, reducing the refinery’s CO2 emissions by an estimated 700,000 tonnes per annum and aligning with Norsk Hydro's global commitment to a 30% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 the Barcarena terminal will supply natural gas to NFE’s 630 MW power plant currently under construction adjacent to the terminal The power plant remains on track for completion in the third quarter of 2025 with approximately 50% of the project already completed NFE plans to strategically expand its power complex by 1.6 GW under the previously announced New Power Project PPA with an expected completion no later than July 2026 NFE has applied to transfer the New Power Project PPA to a permitted site adjacent to the Barcarena terminal and expects to close the acquisition in the first quarter of 2024 One of our administrators will review your comment before posting it onto the website A searchable database of oil and gas debt and equity offerings Prices for top E&P stocks and commodities Rextag database of energy infrastructure assets New Fortress’ facility consists of an offshore terminal and an FSRU that will supply LNG to several customers An LNG tanker anchored at a transport and storage terminal New Fortress Energy’s  6 million tonnes per annum Barcarena LNG terminal in Pará is now operational with the Energos Celsius floating storage regasification unit on-site (FSRU) Barcarena serves as the sole natural gas supply source in the state of Pará and northern Brazil The facility consists of an offshore terminal and an FSRU that will supply LNG to several customers including a 15-year supply agreement with Norsk Hydro’s Alunorte alumina refinery New Fortress says it will supply the alumina with 30 TBtu of natural gas annually to reduce the refinery’s CO2 emissions by about 700,000 tonnes per annum The Barcarena terminal will also supply natural gas to New Fortess’ 630-megawatt power plant which is currently 50% complete and adjacent to the terminal The power plant is on track to achieve completions operations date in third quarter 2025 This conversation is moderated according to Hart Energy community rules. Please read the rules before joining the discussion. If you’re experiencing any technical problems, please contact our customer care team. and exclusive coverage you need to keep your industry edge Subscribe for free to our newsletters for the latest energy news in any form or medium without express written permission is prohibited The US LNG developer New Fortress Energy has announced the arrival of the 160,000 m3 converted floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) Energos Celsius at its Barcarena LNG terminal in the Brazilian state of Pará is a 2013-built vessel with a nominal regasification capacity of 21 mcm/day (7.7 bcm/year) to a maximum capacity of 28 mcm/day (10.3 bcm/year) that departed from Seatrium’s shipyard in Singapore in December 2023 The FSRU will be part of the Barcarena terminal which is the first regasification terminal in the North of Brazil and is expected to serve as the sole natural gas supply source for this region and a gas conditioning station to supply Norsk Hydro at the Alunorte alumina refinery under a 15-year gas contract New Fortress Energy is also building the 605 MW Barcarena power plant that is located adjacent to the LNG terminal and is expected to start commercial operations in the third quarter of 2025 The power plant will receive regasified LNG from the nearby LNG terminal and will sell electricity under 25-year power purchase agreements (PPA) to Japan Korea Marker (JKM) and several electricity distribution companies in Brazil World LNG Database offers a complete set of data on LNG markets The service provides detailed information on existing and planned liquefaction and regasification plants It also includes LNG shipping around the world time series on regasification and liquefaction capacities LNG flows and LNG prices for all players in the market Register now to subscribe to our informative monthly procurement and construction (EPC) contract for the power plant was awarded to a consortium of Mitsubishi Power Americas and Andrade Gutierrez US energy infrastructure company New Fortress Energy (NFE) has begun the construction of a 1.6GW gas-fired power plant next to the Barcarena LNG (liquefied natural gas] terminal in Brazil The commencement of the project marks a significant development in Brazil’s energy sector with the plant set to become operational by August 2026 The EPC contract for the thermal plant was awarded to a consortium that includes Mitsubishi Power Americas and Andrade Gutierrez The move follows the closure of a 15-year capacity reserve contract that New Fortress acquired from Denham Capital and CEIBA Energy in March 2024 The new power plant will provide capacity under a contract with the Brazilian Chamber of Electric Energy Commercialization and is a key component of NFE’s expansion in the region Its strategy includes the completion of the Barcarena and Santa Catarina terminals in the first quarter of 2024 Don’t let policy changes catch you off guard Stay proactive with real-time data and expert analysis The Barcarena LNG terminal will support 2.2GW of power capacity owned by NFE and provide natural gas to the Norsk Hydro Alunorte alumina refinery under a 15-year contract further integrating the company’s operations within the region’s energy landscape NFE managing director Andrew Dete stated: “We are very pleased to announce this EPC contract and the start of construction for our 1.6GW power plant in Barcarena “We are grateful to our partners at Mitsubishi Power and Andrade Gutierrez for their swiftness and collaboration in placing this great project into construction and we look forward to finalising the work over the next 24 months.” Mitsubishi Power Americas LATAM commercial senior vice-president and regional leader Tim Shore stated: “This 1.6GW power plant is a historic project for Brazil It will allow for an efficient energy transition and ensure the reliability of the national electrical system “We are proud to participate together with Andrade Gutierrez to design and construct this important project to support NFE’s growth in Brazil.” Please check your inbox to download the Report By downloading this Report, you acknowledge that GlobalData may share your information with Scotland Tidal and that your personal data will be used as described in their Privacy Policy Give your business an edge with our leading industry insights View all newsletters from across the GlobalData Media network the Barcarena terminal includes an offshore terminal and the Energos Celsius floating storage regasification unit US natural gas company New Fortress Energy (NFE) has commenced operations at the Barcarena liquified natural gas (LNG) terminal in Pará The terminal has a capacity of 6mtpa or 300 trillion British thermal units (TBtu) It is expected to become the primary source of natural gas in Pará and the broader northern region of Brazil This facility will supply LNG to multiple industrial clients including Norsk Hydro’s Alunorte refinery under a 15-year contract NFE emphasised the environmental benefits of the terminal stating that in addition to promoting industrial growth the terminal will also help reduce emissions and pollution in the ecologically delicate Amazon region by offering an environmentally friendly substitute for oil-based fuels The company is set to start delivering natural gas to the Alunorte refinery immediately This is expected to cut the refinery’s CO₂ emissions by roughly 700,000 tonnes each year aligning with Norsk Hydro’s objective to slash greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by 2030.  the Barcarena terminal will fuel NFE’s 630MW power plant which is under construction adjacent to the terminal.   New Fortress Energy chairman and CEO Wes Edens said: “Our Barcarena complex is a great example of NFE’s fully integrated LNG-to-power business model where our LNG import terminal provides a significant competitive advantage.   the state of Pará and Norsk Hydro in their decarbonisation efforts while growing energy supply and economic opportunity in the region.”   In November 2023, NFE and Pemex, the Mexican state-owned petroleum company, cancelled a joint venture to develop a deep-water natural gas project in Mexico aimed to exploit the Lakach gas field in the Gulf of Mexico estimated to hold 900 billion cubic feet of natural gas and located 90km from the port of Veracruz.  due to disagreements on the field’s development strategy and escalating costs the project has been put on hold.   Pemex is now seeking new partners to advance the development of the Lakach field View all newsletters from across the GlobalData Media network energy infrastructure company New Fortress Energy (NFE) has executed definitive agreements with the Brazilian development bank Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (BNDES) and funds managed by Lumina Capital Management and BTG Asset Management to fund up to $575 million in asset-based financing these financings will be used to complete the construction of its 630 MW Barcarena power plant which is approximately 37% completed pursuant to a fixed-price date-certain EPC contract with Mitsubishi and Toyo Setal located adjacent to NFE’s LNG import terminal at the mouth of the Amazon river is said to be on schedule to commence operations in the third quarter of 2025 under a 25-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with several electricity distribution companies in Brazil NFE said the company’s planned conversion of the Energos Celsius from an LNG carrier to a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) remains on schedule for November 2023 completion before delivery and first gas to customers at the Barcarena import terminal beginning at year-end 2023 Energos Celsius is chartered by NFE from Energos Infrastructure on a long-term basis commented: “This power plant will contribute to our portfolio of contracted long-term cash flows in Barcarena beginning in the third quarter of 2025 This will follow contracted cash flows at our Barcarena terminal from Norsk Hydro and Gás do Pará that commence at year-end 2023.” NFE also announced the execution of a definitive agreement to charter the FSRU Energos Winter from Brazilian state-owned oil and gas giant Petrobras starting in December 2023 this FSRU will be deployed to Terminal Gas Sul (TGS) NFE’s newest LNG import terminal in Santa Catarina which is expected to start commercial operations ahead of schedule in January 2024 Daily news and in-depth stories in your inbox The companies awarded by MEA get the opportunity to work closely together with a transnational team of Marine Energy experts on both the technical advancement of their technology as well as the development of their commercial strategy and business plans Each service offer is intended to put the company’s technology and business firmly on the […] Singapore’s Seatrium has delivered the floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) Energos Celsius to U.S energy infrastructure company New Fortress Energy (NFE) for deployment at NFE’s completed LNG terminal in Barcarena This is Seatrium’s fourth FSRU project for Brazil for which the company said is “a testament to our commitment in supporting the development and growth of the country’s oil and gas industry.” will have a nominal regasification capacity of 750 – 1,000 million standard cubic feet per day it will be a part of NFE’s LNG terminal development at Barcarena which includes a long-term gas contract to supply Norsk Hydro at the Alunorte alumina refinery a 630 MW gas-to-power project under construction by NFE and further power and fuel expansion projects in the region The Barcarena LNG import terminal is said to be the first LNG import facility in the state of Pará and the Northern region of Brazil NFE executed definitive agreements with the Brazilian development bank Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (BNDES) and funds managed by Lumina Capital Management and BTG Asset Management to fund up to $575 million in asset-based financing to complete the construction of its 630 MW Barcarena power plant located adjacent to NFE’s LNG import terminal NFE revealed that the construction of its Santa Catarina (TGS) terminal in Brazil is complete and the company is looking forward to the arrival of the floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) Energos Winter in January 2024 Ingersoll Rand Engineering Project Solutions At Ingersoll Rand’s Engineering Project Solutions we have been managing and implementing engineered to-order air packages for complex technical requirements for over 60 years We provide specialized custom compressed air and gas compressors as well as nitrogen generation packages to international EPC contractors and engineering companies across a range of […] Hygo Energy Transition has executed a memorandum of understanding with Brazil’s Companhia de Gás do Pará to use the Baracena terminal a joint venture between Golar and Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners will supply natural gas and LNG to GdP once the negotiations are finalized The company will utilize the Barcarena terminal the only one permitted in this isolated region Hygo and GdP will explore the potential in the local market GdP is the regulated local distribution company (LDC) that has the exclusive rights to distribute natural gas in the state of Pará The Barcarena terminal construction will start shortly with operations to commence in the first half of 2022 “The MOU is an important step towards introducing natural gas to the Para state The Barcarena LNG terminal will transform the fuel supply in the region and our clients will have an affordable solution to reduce their environmental footprint” Hygo estimates the potential for replacing approximately 1.8 million tons of LNG equivalents per annum of LPG The LNG demand for power generation is also significant The company has secured 25-year PPAs for a 605MW power station in the region which adds 0.6 mtpa of LNG demand to the Barcarena terminal This power station will be capable of running with a blend of up to 50 per cent of Hydrogen The company also expects to utilize the Barcarena LNG terminal to provide an LNG supply solution to the new regional power auction reports and more on the topics that matter to you Join us today to continue accessing content without any restrictions Or to request access to TXF Intelligence contact us in the decarbonisation technologies sector at thyssenkrupp argues that long term trends towards decarbonisation are.. at Finnish energy and marine technology company reflects on ECA-backed projects in the new global macro and.. Veronika’s Exile celebrates the importance of mentorship and resilience as well as embracing alternative working models to deal with problems that aren’t quite as unprecedented as we give them credit for argues that long term trends towards decarbonisation are unambiguous reflects on ECA-backed projects in the new global macro and political paradigm emerging from the US An Industry Awards dinner adds glamour to this unmissable adventure Propel Your Career Forward with the Gold Standard in ECA Finance Education The original works published on this website are owned by Exile Group Limited and are accessed by you subject strictly to the terms of our licence or transmit all or part of the works without our permission including uploading prompting or otherwise making available the original works to large language models (such as ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini) whether for training InfoAmazonia Drug gangs threaten communities in Amazon ‘cocaine corridor’ African-descended and other traditional communities are caught in escalating violence from drug trafficking in Amazon “cocaine corridor.” Maria talks fondly about the peaceful rural community where she grew up she recalls playing games in the forest and in the river with the other kids picking fresh açaí berries and foraging for nuts under towering trees There were no “industrialized toys,” she says with the arrival of a group of drug-trafficking outsiders that reality has changed to nighttime gunshots after a young man came to her home and threatened her “He said that if I snitched and had them taken out of there I would bleed — my whole family would,” she says that she had told local authorities about the criminal group’s activities she fled the community called Sítio Cupuaçu a port city and today a major industrial hub close to where the Amazon River meets the Atlantic Ocean we never heard of this drug business.” Her community is one of several quilombos — settlements formed by African people who escaped slavery in Brazil and people of African descent — in the region Maria says the people invading her community claim to have “permission” from the leader of a local branch of Brazil’s notorious Comando Vermelho (CV) a drug gang with its main base more than 3,000 kilometers (1,864 miles) away in Rio de Janeiro it has established itself as the dominant drug trafficking group in Pará The gang used the forested community as a distribution and storage point for drugs like cocaine burying larger quantities in the ground in case of police raids the CV also engaged in small-scale land grabbing clearing land to divide into plots to sell and illegal construction wrecking the community’s rich natural habitats.   showing pictures of fallen forest and foliage on her smartphone The northern port’s prime location near the mouth of the Amazon River offers better access to routes for both legal and illegal exports Traffickers bring cocaine into the vast state of Pará — which at 1.2 million square kilometers (more than 460,000 square miles) highway or clandestine flights that have proliferated with an uptick in illegal mining in Pará and across Brazil’s Amazon in recent years gangsters divide cocaine cargoes to send to domestic markets in the state or across the country or to Europe using Brazil’s expansive port structures just 120 kilometers (75 miles) from the Atlantic Ocean makes it ideal for exporters sending commodities to Europe nearly 17 million tons of cargo such as soybeans fertilizer and corn passed through the port It is one of the so-called “Northern Arc” ports that gained prominence in Brazil over the last decade which shorten maritime distances to key markets and therefore cut logistics costs challenging the traditional dominance of São Paulo’s Santos port But criminal organizations have also capitalized Data obtained through a freedom of information request by InfoAmazonia to Brazil’s federal revenue agency show that though experts have warned that seizures alone would not necessarily reflect an accurate picture military police officers in Barcarena seized more than two tons of cocaine at a rural property a short drive from the port — and from Maria’s home — after exchanging gunfire with armed men who then fled into the nearby forest it was the largest cocaine seizure in Pará’s history federal authorities seized nearly three tons of cocaine hidden inside sacks of soybean meal at the port in a container destined for Portugal It was one of the largest single cocaine busts ever recorded at a Brazilian port Authorities have also seized cocaine hidden in shipments of timber a mineral that has been increasingly coveted and extracted illegally in southern Pará in recent years by organized crime groups ready to be exported or arriving from Vila do Conde to European ports in Portugal and Rotterdam While São Paulo’s Santos port is still the main exit point for cocaine headed to Europe inspections have stepped up in recent years forcing criminal groups to seek other ports “What we see is a very clear picture of the diversification of the use of Brazilian ports for the export of cocaine to Europe,” says Isabela Vianna Pinho a guest sociology doctoral candidate at the Danish Institute for International Studies in Copenhagen and a member of the institute’s peace and conflict unit “This is down to a series of complex factors,” she adds [international drug trafficking] relies on people and personal arrangements.” The seizures at Vila do Conde reflect part of a reconfiguration of drug routes and exit points for cocaine passing through Brazil on its way to Europe as well as the growing importance of the Amazon as an international drug transit point the volume of cocaine and other drugs passing through the Brazilian Amazon whether destined for local markets or for export with record production levels in Brazil’s neighbors Colombia Approximately 2,000 tons of cocaine are produced annually Just under half of the approximately 2,000 tons of cocaine produced annually passes through Brazil roughly 40 percent of it through the Amazon region head of the non-profit Brazilian Public Security Forum “The turning point was in 2016,” he says, with the anti-aircraft machine gun murder of Jorge Rafaat who controlled the supply of drugs on Brazil’s border with Paraguay “The Comando Vermelho needed to adapt and was forced to find new routes reactivating old contacts it had with Colombian drug lords.” While Brazil’s Amazon has always been violent The region offers various advantages to drug traffickers and the possibility of exploiting various sectors of the economy in a much easier way than big cities,” de Lima says because there’s less [state] supervision Amazon Underworld joined local military police officers in Barcarena on an operation to clamp down on drug trafficking and other crimes the city had seen an uptick in gang members released from prison heading there to set up local chapters of crime groups like the Comando Vermelho Barcarena is home to several traditional rural quilombos like the one Maria fled where officers say that gangsters from outside the city have sought to establish themselves officers said they had raided a forest encampment set up by drug traffickers in the Itupanema Beach region of Barcarena armed officers stormed a simple wooden house and arrested a man accused of rape who had fled from another city in Pará the operation yielded no drug crime arrests gang members would send the message round that police were out and therefore lay low police in Barcarena arrested a 34-year-old man wanted for homicide they also seized around 68,000 reais (equivalent to about US$13,600) in cash planned attacks against security authorities during a wave of violence orchestrated by Comando Vermelho leaders last year in which at least seven police officers were killed were arrested on charges of kidnapping and extorting drug traffickers enrolled in a local program that provides protection and assistance for threatened activists in Pará Maria laments the destruction of her community’s natural beauty and its social fabric “It was so good,” Maria says of the community “We always had issues with grileiros [large-scale land grabbers] trying to claim our land but they always backed off eventually when we showed them our land titles.” She says the drug gang has also co-opted some community members and young people with small gifts and promises of easy money who was head of the local residents’ association also fled the community after the gang threatened him with a gun at his house We’re good people who want to raise our children well Now the best way for us to raise our children is to send them outside of the community and one of those later arrested in connection with the murder had already been charged with international drug trafficking two Comando Vermelho gang members were also killed there in a raid that happened during the wave of attacks on police officers Maria said that the young man who threatened her at her home is the second in command in the area and handles sales transactions involving the clandestine constructions The gangsters removed the community plaque and one of the threats Maria received came after she told a prospective buyer that the area was a quilombo and that his purchase might later be revoked as those lands could qualify for government protection in the future The person who came to her home “had a .38 revolver,” she says Although they have not killed any community members “They are always killing among themselves.” The dynamics of “invasions,” as illegal land occupations run by organized crime groups are locally known The Belém Metropolitan Region has some of the worst affordable housing provisions in Brazil One resident who lives next to a Comando Vermelho invasion in Ananindeua another city in the Belém Metropolitan Region says local gang leaders decide what lands can be invaded and by whom The tactic serves to further dominate and expand urban frontiers in a region where the Comando Vermelho’s only armed rivals are police and rogue police militias faces a “tribunal,” which can result in their murder or expulsion from the invaded area without compensation a researcher with the Brazilian Public Security Forum and an expert on organized crime in Pará the growing criminal movement in Barcarena follows a statewide pattern or “towers,” many recently released from prison or wanted by authorities head to more remote locations outside of state capitals and city centers to avoid police detection they need to maintain a relationship with drug trafficking because they need to support themselves economically,” he says Couto says the CV in Barcarena would almost certainly seek to expand its influence in the port region just as the PCC did years ago in São Paulo’s Santos port recruiting members within the state’s brutal prison system after Pará prisoners were jailed with CV members in federal prisons elsewhere in Brazil CV gangsters from Pará have also increasingly fled to Rio de Janeiro was killed in March in a police operation that left 13 dead in Complexo do Salgueiro authorities raided properties connected to suspected lawyers of the group in the cities of Marabá and Castanhal as well as several militia groups involving rogue police officers What we see is the increasing suffocation of Barcarena’s traditional communities by both crime and heavy industry — the destruction of their traditional ways of life several major industrial disasters since 2010 have seriously damaged local habitats on which traditional communities depended.  a Lebanese cargo ship headed for Venezuela with 5,000 cows and 700 tons of oil sank at the Vila do Conde port killing most of cattle and releasing part of the oil into the river Studies found the accident seriously depleted fishing stocks “What we see is the increasing suffocation of Barcarena’s traditional communities by both crime and heavy industry — the destruction of their traditional ways of life,” says Cícero Pedrosa a journalist and anthropologist who has studied Barcarena’s quilombos “How can these families have a healthy life there?”  While Barcarena has emerged as a key drug trafficking hub the CV has expanded even further in recent years into Pará’s vast interior the state is home to seven of Brazil’s 30 most murderous municipalities a hub of illegal mining activity and where the Munduruku Indigenous Territory is located recorded a stunning 199 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in 2021 the second-highest rate in Brazil and nine times the national average of 22 per 100,000 also suffer from high rates of environmental crime and land conflict drug gangsters in Pará and across the Amazon increasingly look to reinvest or launder illicit profits through environmental crimes such as wildcat mining which typically carry lesser penalties than drug crimes A 2021 police operation called  “Narcos Gold” confirmed that criminals used gold mines in Pará as landing strips for planes transporting drugs and as a front for money laundering The main target of the operation, Heverton “Grota” Soares, held 18 prospecting permits for mining in Pará, which he used as a drug trafficking front, and is being investigated for drug trafficking, criminal organization, money laundering and homicide and has links to the PCC, according to media reports Pará neither produces cocaine nor borders producer nations According to state Public Security Secretary Ulame Machado most cocaine and other drugs entering Pará especially shipments bound for the port in Barcarena come from the triple border with Peru and Colombia in neighboring Amazonas state and arrive by river “Skunk,” a high-grade form of marijuana produced in Colombia sells in Brazil for five times the price of traditional weaker weed imports from Paraguay and enables criminal groups already using the Amazon River route to increase their profits Reports of such shipments  headed directly for Brazil’s largest drug markets Machado mentioned a January seizure of 1.6 tons of cocaine and skunk hidden beneath 12 tons of prized pirarucu fish a key region for the entry of drugs into Pará drugs can be loaded into trucks and transported by road especially the BR-163 and TransAmazonian highways “you can deliver to the whole of Brazil,” including the Vila do Conde port much less risky for them to use Barcarena port,” he says “And at the same time their logistics are much easier because you don’t have to cross the whole country to get to Santos.” Bolivian cocaine passing through Mato Grosso also enters southern Pará by road An uptick in illegal mining in Pará in recent years has increased the number of small plane flights an expert witness with Brazil’s Federal Police “And since these guys are already doing something illegal,” he adds delivering cocaine “is not a huge step up for them.” One of Brazil’s most experienced drug trafficking pilots, Silvio Berri Júnior, who worked for infamous Comando Vermelho leader Fernandinho Beira-Mar, held a gold prospecting claim in Pará and was arrested in 2020 on suspicion of working for mega trafficker Major Carvalho Machado says Pará also serves as an important base for traffickers transporting drugs by air to other regions of Brazil as the vast state is often used for refueling stops which suffer some of the worst destruction from illegal mining in the Brazilian Amazon also serve as logistics points for drug flights “Such places are convenient [for drug traffickers] because they are out of the way of the public eye,” he adds “There are no police cars patrolling there In illegal mining towns and encampments across Pará cocaine and crack fetch far more than the average street price — swaps of one gram of gold for one gram of cocaine are common Machado says efforts are being made to stop the flow of cocaine into Pará including the construction of civil police river bases in the Óbidos region and Abaetetuba two key municipalities on the Amazon River drug route as well as the recent construction of a base in Breves in the Marajó Archipelago near the mouth of the Amazon many harboring “clandestine” ports where drugs can be unloaded Drug shipments pass by riverine communities and quilombos and authorities often find stashes buried in the ground in and around Barcarena Large quantities of drugs are spread out in smaller amounts in rural properties or warehouses that are cheaper and more protected because they are isolated Legitimate exporters may unknowingly have their containers hacked and filled by specialized criminal gangs working at ports a technique known as “rip on/rip off,” when official seals are broken and then reapplied like the 2.75 tons of cocaine found hidden in soybean meal in 2022 often require the help of corrupt public officials who officially requested Freitas’ removal from service says international drug trafficking would be “impossible” without corrupt public agents He notes that at the time the police lieutenant was arrested in Portugal There are times when corrupt police know drugs are being kept somewhere but they don’t say anything .They’ll just extort instead Brasil described a complex picture of warehouses used in the Barcarena area to store cocaine often with the tacit permission of corrupt local police and front companies set up solely to give an air of legitimacy to the drug trade “It is an institution to defend public order and morality,” he says of the police “but unfortunately there are some who enter to steal Investigations cited in local reports indicate that Freitas, the military police officer arrested in Portugal, worked for Portugal’s most powerful drug lord Ruben “Xuxas” Oliveira and Carvalho the former military police major from Mato Grosso do Sul then considered Brazil’s biggest independent drug trafficker a fisherman beaches a rickety wooden boat at Itupanema just as an intense Amazonian rainstorm begins hulking cargo ships stacked with steel containers filled with tons of commodities headed for international markets sit anchored as the storm beats down Maria understands little about the dynamics of international cocaine trafficking but knows the damage that has been inflicted on the forest community nearby where she was born and raised “If one day we manage to get this land back Amazon Underworld is a joint investigation of InfoAmazonia (Brazil) Armando.Info (Venezuela) and La Liga Contra el Silencio (Colombia) The work is carried out in collaboration with the Pulitzer Center’s Rainforest Investigations Network and financed by the Open Society Foundation Commonwealth & Development Office and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN NL) Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value" a Colombian armed group that also operates in northern Ecuador and the Ecuadorian gang Los Choneros have imposed a regime of terror in the Amazonian provinces of Sucumbíos and Orellana although the alliances between them are unclear One of the illegal activities that has grown the most […] is also a source and transit point for illegally extracted jungle resources and narcotics By visiting this site, you agree to the use of cookies, which are designed to improve your experience and are used for the purpose of analytics and personalization. To find out more, please read our Cookies policy. You can change the settings also. Company turns in record results but still awaits start-up of its delayed first FLNG unit US-listed New Fortress Energy has put its long-planned floating storage and regasification unit-based Barcarena LNG terminal into operation in Brazil. Ahead of its year-end results on Thursday, New Fortress said the 6m tonnes per annum facility in Para state is now in operation with the 160,000-cbm Energos Celsius (built 2013) on site. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn YouTube Instagram Your data on TradeWinds TradeWinds is part of DN Media Group AS From November 1st DN Media Group is responsible for controlling your data on TradeWinds We use your data to ensure you have a secure and enjoyable user experience when visiting our site. You can read more about how we handle your information in our privacy policy DN Media Group is the leading news provider in the shipping, seafood, and energy industries, with a number of English- and Norwegian-language news publications across a variety of sectors. Read more about DN Media Group here TradeWinds is part of NHST Global Publications AS and we are responsible for the data that you register with us and the data we collect when you visit our websites We use cookies in a variety of ways to improve your experience such as keeping NHST websites reliable and secure personalising content and ads and to analyse how our sites are being used For more information and how to manage your privacy settings please refer to our privacy and cookie policies This story is the fifth in a series reporting on the legacy current status and likely future of bauxite mining in the Trombetas river basin and Amazon delta Journalist Sue Branford and filmmaker Thaís Borges journeyed there in February Their investigation of aluminum production is especially relevant now as Brazil’s Bolsonaro administration pushes to open the Amazon’s Indigenous reserves and other protected areas to large-scale industrial mining Brazil — Maria Socorro da Silva lives in the Amazon but hasn’t heard birdsong in her backyard for many months “Birds won’t eat them.” Then she points to the fruit on the ground She is also president of the Association of Caboclos Indigenous and Quilombolas da Amazônia (Cainquiama) which represents thousands of the region’s forest dwellers Barcarena was a peaceful fishing community inhabited by traditional ribeirinho (riverine) families But in the mid-1980s the international mining industry arrived and transformed the community into one of the Amazon’s main industrial and shipping hubs while failing to consult inhabitants about the takeover three immense mining processing plants crowd closely together in Barcarena: Hydro Alunorte Norsk Hydro; the Norwegian-Japanese Albrás company Brazil’s largest manufacturer of primary aluminum; and the French Imerys Rio Capim Caulim a mineral used mostly in the making of paper and pottery in a country whose government habitually favors industry over the rights of the people with poorly upheld environmental regulation and enforcement was a recipe for socio-environmental catastrophe with leakage of toxic waste containment basins with the discharge of huge amounts of soot from factory chimneys The affected population says there were even more accidents in the same period; 27 in total no one buys it because it’s all contaminated How can I earn my living?” asks Raimundo Barros from the quilombola community of São Sebastião do Burajuba (quilombolas are descendants of runaway slaves who established Brazilian quilombo communities in once remote rural areas riverine families grew subsistence crops and earned money from selling fish and collecting forest products from the Social Movement of Ribeirinhos (traditional riverine people) in the Pará River Basin that represents about 10,000 local families “Today [many] families can’t feed themselves from the environment they live in and many go hungry when the açaí harvest ends Fishermen find it hard to catch fish and shrimp in the river they know they are eating contaminated fish,” Feitosa says Local people told Mongabay that they have long lacked monetary and food security while also suffering from social inequality and health problems ever since the mining industry arrived and poisoned the air and destroyed subsistence and commercial livelihoods Barcarena today is among Pará state’s richest municipalities But the wealth is very unevenly distributed Away from the municipality’s center and a few wealthier areas signs of extreme social deprivation are everywhere lying in the shadow of the mining processing plants while most people dispose of home waste in open-air garbage dumps Barcarena’s central role in the manufacture or alumina and aluminum stems from the extremely rich reserves of bauxite found in the lower reaches of the Amazon River Basin Mineração do Rio Norte (MRN) — originally set up by a Canadian mining company — opened its first bauxite mine beside the Trombetas River in 1979 That’s when the world’s big mining companies realized they could rely on this new and began moving their polluting and energy-intensive alumina and aluminum industries to the remote Brazilian Amazon and away from their developed home countries where they were already seeing environmental The first mining giant to arrive in Barcarena in the early 1980s was Albrás — then a joint venture between Brazil’s gigantic state-owned mining company Vale do Rio Doce (51% of investment capital) an association of 32 Japanese firms (49% of capital) The military dictatorship ruling Brazil at the time was keen for the companies to move in so it paid for expensive infrastructure with public money It built major public works projects including the Tucurui hydroelectric power station and mega-dam on the Tocantins River to provide cheap electricity for ore processing; along with the port of Vila do Conde in Barcarena; and a network of roads and river transport corridors supporting the mines Albras, which, according to the Chamber of Electric Energy Commercialization (CCEE), a national body that oversees the sale of electricity, is Brazil’s largest individual energy consumer, began receiving subsidized electricity from the Tucuruí dam in 1984 the company paid just US$12 per megawatt/hour The company says that it no longer receives a subsidy market-based contract for the supply of electricity to its operations The company does not receive a subsidy from the Brazilian government related to the purchase of electricity,” the company’s press office stated in a note sent to Mongabay shortly after this story was originally published.* The generous subsidies handed out to the mining industry continued after Brazil’s return to civilian rule in 1985 and under successive conservative and progressive governments and continues even now under President Jair Bolsonaro their lives disrupted by large scale mining’s arrival “The conflicts began with the expulsion of ribeirinhos from their land to make way for the ports and industries [the government was] installing there in a process that has carried on until today,” explains Feitosa Other companies soon joined Albrás and Alunorte in Barcarena About a hundred other smaller companies sprang up providing services and manufacturing inputs to the mining processing facilities One of the most serious in a long list of environmental accidents occurred in 2007, when the Imerys plant was responsible for a large spill of kaolin clay waste. According to a Dossier on Mining Disasters in Barcarena about 200,000 cubic meters (52.8 million gallons) of the waste reportedly poured into the Curuperé and Dendê creeks with some of the discharge reaching the Pará River Dozens of families living in the industrial zone had to be rapidly evacuated to avert a far more serious disaster a university lecturer who coordinates LAQUANAM (The Laboratory of Analytical and Environmental Chemistry) at the Federal University of Pará “Sulphuric acid is used as a whitener in the processing of the kaolin,” she explained the mineral releases heavy metals such as barium and cadmium that are found in the waste that went into the watercourses used by the population.” The company minimized the impact at the time But Pereira pointed out that fish had previously all disappeared in 1996 when the company began discharging acid into the river locally When Mongabay contacted Imerys about its reported involvement in 12 environmental accidents in Barcarena it replied that “it acts within current Brazilian legislation that demands rigid environmental controls and that it invested R$15 million (US$3.6 million) in the safety of its [waste] basins in 2109.” It did not answer questions about the possible presence of heavy metals in its tailings or reports that its basins were not made waterproof until 2007 The 2007 accident didn’t jeopardize the company’s close relationship with the authorities headed by Ana Júlia Carepa from the left-of-center Workers’ Party (PT) extended the company’s exemption from ICMS — a sort of value added tax on the circulation of merchandise and services — offering it to almost all of the firm’s operations Other mining disasters followed. In 2009, a major spill occurred at the Alunorte plant, which, killed fish and damaged biodiversity along the Murucupi River, according to IBAMA blamed “rain that occurs once in a thousand years.” IBAMA imposed three fines for damage caused to the river but by 2018 these fines had not been paid LAQUANAM analyzed water from the Murucupi River after the accident and found toxic elements while it’s not possible to link Alunorte to the presence of some of these heavy metals the evidence against the company is stronger for other pollutants particularly because high concentrations are found near the plant a researcher with the Evandro Chagas Institute (IEC) carried out a pilot study in Barcarena to assess air quality by looking at bioindicator flora — that is plants that react in the presence of pollutants the closer the plants were to the ore processing facilities Pereira says that government failed to tackle the underlying problem highlighted by the IEC study: “Neither Alunorte nor Imerys have been made to restore the biological life of the rivers they contaminate,” she said cadmium and aluminum is still there [in the rivers] and people are still drinking this water and eating fish from it.” São Sebastião do Burajuba and Vila Nova were the most severely affected with residents alleging that the water in their creeks and artesian wells had been contaminated by toxic red mud flowing from the containment basin Images of the flooded mining processing plant were splashed across the global press A report made by the Evandro Chagas Institute at the request of the Federal and State Public Ministries which are bodies of independent litigators concluded that the waste basin had overflowed It based this judgement on two pieces of evidence: the level of aluminium in the rivers was 25 times above the legal limit; and an inspection had discovered two apparently clandestine pipes that were discharging untreated industrial waste directly into the water course Alunorte rejected the conclusions of the studies It said that the two pipes had not been used since the plant was built though it admitted that during the flooding they had leaked rainwater The company presented technical reports that found no evidence of an overflow Just like Vale with respect to the earlier accident of the kind that only occurs once in 10,000 years.” At the time of the accident was still being tested and without an operational license said that different authorities had inspected the plant 92 times in 2018 and had not produced evidence of an overflow “We signed the deal so that the embargo over our operations would be lifted and because we are concerned about the wellbeing of our neighbors,” Carlos Eduardo Neves backed the version given by the local operations director He said: “Based on internal and external inspections we have no reason to believe that there has been any leakage from the bauxite residue deposits at Alunorte.” Molland also echoed the point made by Pereira that the location of the various processing plants makes it difficult to attribute blame: “Alunorte is located in an industrial area where for decades several large industries have been present It is therefore often difficult to attribute substances found in the surrounding area.” A Parliamentary Enquiry set up by the Pará State Legislative Assembly concluded that Alunorte was probably responsible for the 2018 accident was for an investigation into the company’s failure to comply in Brazil with the “2014 Norwegian code of practice for corporate governance.” Other recommendations to Alunorte and to the Pará state government were for more effective measures for monitoring the safety of the plant its environmental impact and the health of the affected populations The controversy over this accident continues today. In a recent academic article about Barcarena researcher Sabrina do Nascimento notes that the Pará state government’s environmental agency did not regard DRS2 as a new structure but as an extension of the original one it didn’t ask for a new Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for DSR2 but allowed the company to use the original EIA SEMAS did not comment on the need for a new EIA and said that its licensing process is continuous and conforms with legal requirements Nascimento says that the situation radically changed over the years: Whereas in the 1980s Alunorte was producing around 800,000 tons of alumina per year by 2018 its output had soared to around six million tons annually She believes that it is the company’s failure to increase sufficiently its ability to handle toxic residue deposits and the limited capacity of its water treatment stations She notes that in 2003 the tailings dam overflowed twice soon after the company had doubled its productive capacity and that the 2009 disaster also occurred soon after a third expansion in productive capacity “is evidence of the plant’s incapacity to treat and store tailings in the wake of an exorbitant growth in production.” Blaming the heavy rains — a so called “act of God” — begs the question of whether the waste catchment basins were adequate to safely store the waste from radically increased aluminum production “The government signed our death sentence when it brought these companies here,” Socorro stated She says that blood and hair tests have shown conclusively that local residents’ bodies are contaminated by lead and aluminum neither the mining industry nor the government “is providing us with any way of removing these metals from our bodies.” In 2019, the Evandro Chagas Institute published a study entitled “Human Blood Lead Levels and the First Evidence of Environmental Exposure to Industrial Pollutants in the Amazon” that examined levels of lead in communities close to the Barcarena plants it found that in one of the communities the level of lead in adults was up to five times higher than the maximum level recommended by the World Health Organization and in children it was up to eight times higher told Mongabay that they had also found populations with high levels of cadmium and were currently investigating levels of manganese Socorro and her husband believe they are living proof of this mining industry legacy as they have both suffered seriously from cancer was the premature death of their grandson who was born with deformities Socorro blames mining industry contamination “from the water the air and the soil.… They are taking away our wealth and leaving behind cancer to kill us,” she said Few residents believe anything will change “We are living through genocide legalized and supported by the state,” declares Paulo Feitosa She asked Mongabay to help her publicize her appeal to the authorities: I challenge you: You who are so in favor of mining Banner image: Maria do Socorro da Silva touches a Burajuba tree which the quilombo where she lives was named after we will struggle because we don’t want to die!” Image by Thaís Borges – Feb/2020 * Update: This story upon publication said that “Albrás and Vale did not respond to requests for comment for this story.” However Mongabay reached out to both companies for comment and its remarks regarding subsidies have been added to this story Albrás wrote: “The company clarifies that it manages effluents and waste disposal in strict compliance with environmental legislation and under the terms established in its operating licenses Albrás has environmental control devices acting on its processes and their performance is reported periodically to the responsible environmental agency.” Vale did not respond to Mongabay’s request for comment FEEDBACK: Use this form to send a message to the author of this post In a judgment handed down by the Court of Rotterdam Pogust Goodhead was successful in securing the jurisdiction of the Dutch courts in our claim against aluminium producer Norsk Hydro and descendants of slaves affected by contaminated waters in Northern Brazil The pollutive activities of Norsk Hydro at a site in Barcarena Pará have caused untold damage to the environment and public health in the surrounding area pain and weaknesses in their bodies as well as babies born with malformations They have lost the water they once relied upon to fish as well as their access to previous sources of income from selling products reared and sourced from the rivers Our clients agree that this is a direct result of at least ten environmental disasters at the world’s largest aluminium refinery which has seen pollutive waste being released across land and water Norsk Hydro has refused to take full responsibility and those affected have not had access to fair and full redress they have taken their case to the Dutch courts The Rotterdam District Court has ruled that the case can proceed to the merits phase This is the third ruling of its kind in 2022 in cases led by Pogust Goodhead with European courts becoming the gatekeepers of environmental damage caused by large corporations is a limited liability company registered at Chamber of Commerce (no 83137718) with its registered office at Herengracht 433 is a Dutch law firm that has entered into a partnership with the law firms PGMBM Law Ltd and PGMBM Ltd with the purpose to cooperate in accordance with section 5.2 of the Legal Profession Byelaw (in Dutch: Verordening op de Advocatuur) focuses (as the other partners within the said partnership) on collective actions is the contracting entity in relation to services provided by lawyers working at PGMBM Nederland B.V Norsk Hydro, a bauxite and aluminum mining and refining company also known as “Hydro” whose majority and controlling shareholder is the Norwegian government, has been accused by the Brazilian government of a toxic waste spill from holding basins at its Hydro Alunorte facility is the largest aluminum refining plant in the world The company denies responsibility for any spill but says it is cooperating fully with officials Also last week, Norsk Hydro was accused of possessing a “clandestine pipeline to discharge untreated effluent” into a set of Muripi River Springs in a report by the Evandro Chagas Institute of Brazil’s Ministry of Health The Norwegian mining giant at first denied this accusation there was a pipeline with a small flow of reddish water in the refinery area,” the company says the company is making the necessary investigations to identify the origin and nature of the material as well as carrying out the immediate sealing of this pipeline.” High levels of lead, aluminum, sodium and other toxins have been detected in drinking water up to two kilometers away from the Norsk Hydro property, according to the Ministry of Health likely due to caustic soda used to process bauxite Pará State Attorney General Ricardo Negrini said in a Friday news conference there is “no doubt” a spill has occurred but there is no data yet regarding the incident’s cause After initial complaints were made by community residents about the spill Hydro sent a note to its customers describing the episode as “rumor,” stating that “there were no leaks or ruptures” in the waste holding basin The company also denied the spill on its website Sunday “Internal and external inspections have not found proof of overflow and leakage from the bauxite residue deposits at Hydro Alunorte,” and that “The water has been collected channeled and treated in the industrial effluent treatment station as normal.” However, the company told BBC Brazil “it is committed to correct any problem that may have been caused by its operation,” adding that “Hydro Alunorte informs that it is immediately providing potable water to the communities of Vila Nova and Bom Futuro The company undertakes to collaborate with the communities where the samples were collected by the Evandro Chagas Institute to find permanent access solutions to drinking water together with stakeholders.” The firm also said it would launch a task force to investigate “The [local] population uses these waters [near the storage basins] for recreation consumption and capture of fish,” so that proximity could lead to contamination of soils and bio-accumulation Results of tests for toxins done on hair and skin of those living near the spill won’t be available for several weeks Asked about the clandestine pipeline described by the health ministry report and its denial of the spill the company said it is waiting to receive an official report before commenting further The Norwegian government stated that it would not be able to respond to questions submitted by Mongabay in a timely manner for this story the independent prosecutors of the Federal Public Ministry (MPF) and Pará state sent Norsk Hydro a document requesting immediate closure of the Norsk Hydro holding basin there is a risk of a breach of the waste pond which has raised fears of a tragedy similar to that of Mariana in 2015 when a toxic mud wave buried the village of Bento Rodrigues and spread down the Doce River for 500 miles to the Atlantic Ocean a geographer and State University of Rio de Janeiro professor told BBC Brazil that the dams at Mariana and Barcarena “have different natures,” with the Norsk Hydro holding basin presenting less of a threat however have the] potential for contamination by tailings.” BBC Brazil revealed that Hydro was the target of a series of denunciations by the Federal Public Ministry (MPF) of Pará as well as almost 2,000 lawsuits for contamination of rivers and communities in Barcarena the company has not paid fines set at R $17 million (US $5.27 million) to date the leak at that time put the local Barcarena population at risk and generated “significant destruction of biodiversity.” Memories of this previous trauma may have augmented concern expressed by local residents over the new spill “This is not the first leak,” said Sandra Amorim a resident of the São João quilombola (made up of former slave runaways) a kilometer from the Norsk Hydro holding basin and after the report they said it had a leak They promised that they [would] start distributing drinking mineral water and food we want this situation solved.” She added that there are currently “people with itchy bodies and people getting sick” in the community There is as yet no official confirmation of contamination of local residents by the Evandro Chagas Institute The Brazilian Bar Association in Pará (OAB-PA) said that in response to the discovery of the illegal pipeline that they will request the removal of the Secretary of Environment of Pará and ask for judicial intervention in the Secretariat of Environment and Sustainability of Pará (SEMAS) “It caused special indignation [when the health ministry found] a ‘clandestine’ drain drained tailings when the rains intensified,” said OAB-PA an estuarine region broken up by small rivers and islands has seen its population grow at a rate three times faster than the rest of Brazil over the last 40 years thanks to jobs generated by mining companies But the province has experienced disorderly growth as it has become a major exporter of mineral commodities (bauxite “The history of environmental accidents in Barcarena is impressive an average of one per year,” Attorney General Bruno Valente who signed a public civil action filed in 2016 “Sludge overflow from Hydro’s tailings basin affected a number of communities in 2009 and to date there has never been a compensation or fine payment,” he said Some question whether the Norwegian government is acting fairly by causing environmental degradation in Brazil via its mining operations while simultaneously withholding funding due to its criticism of increased deforestation under the Temer government Max Nathanson is a graduate student in the University of Oxford’s Department of International Development and a freelance photojournalist See his work at maxnathanson.com and follow him on Twitter @TheMaxNathanson (NFE) has launched its liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in Santa Catarina NFE’s Terminal Gas Sul (TGS) is an offshore LNG import terminal with a capacity of approximately six million metric tons per annum (mtpa) and maximum send-out of 500 million standard cubic feet per day (MMscfd) The terminal includes the Winter floating storage regasification unit (FSRU) and a 33-kilometer which connects the facility to the existing inland Transportadora Brasileira Gasoduto Bolívia-Brasil (TBG) pipeline the New York-based company said in a recent news release TGS “presents a high-growth opportunity for the company within the Brazilian power and gas markets” The terminal is connected by pipeline to the wider Brazilian gas market including more than 3.5 gigawatts (GW) of power that does not have firm long-term gas supply contracts and more than 300 trillion British thermal units (Tbtu) of industrial and residential gas consumers in the south region of Brazil NFE predicts that both power and gas demand are set to substantially increase while the historical main source of gas supply from Bolivia has declined and is expected to further diminish in the near term “TGS is directly connected to more than 3.5 GW of existing power infrastructure that lacks firm supply agreements making the terminal a key asset in Brazil’s evolving energy landscape” “With numerous new power projects required to balance the grid in Brazil in the near term NFE is poised to meet growing demand by leveraging its vertically integrated portfolio of LNG assets and expertise” NFE also launched its six-mtpa Barcarena LNG terminal in Pará NFE said its Barcarena LNG terminal is strategically located at the mouth of the Amazon River in Pará and serves as the sole natural gas supply source in the state of Pará and the North region of Brazil The facility consists of an offshore terminal and FSRU that will supply LNG to several industrial customers including a 15-year contract with Norsk Hydro’s Alunorte refinery The terminal will not only support industrial development but also “reduce emissions and pollution in the environmentally sensitive Amazon region by providing a cleaner affordable and reliable alternative to oil-based fuels” NFE said it will supply Norsk Hydro’s alumina production facility with approximately 30 TBtus of natural gas annually reducing the refinery’s annual carbon dioxide emissions by an estimated 700,000 mtpa and supporting Norsk Hydro's global commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by 2030 The Barcarena terminal will also supply natural gas to NFE’s 630-MW power plant which is currently under construction adjacent to the Barcarena terminal The company said the power plant remains on track to achieve a commercial operations date (COD) in the third quarter of 2025 and is approximately 50 percent complete the company intends to utilize its existing infrastructure in place in Barcarena to strategically expand its power complex by 1.6 GW under the previously announced New Power Project PPA with an expected COD no later than July 2026 NFE has applied to transfer the New Power Project PPA to a permitted site adjacent to the Barcarena terminal and expects to close the acquisition in the first quarter “Our Barcarena complex is a great example of NFE’s fully integrated LNG-to-power business model where our LNG import terminal provides a significant competitive advantage” and Norsk Hydro in their decarbonization efforts while growing energy supply and economic opportunity in the region” New Fortress Energy describes itself as a global energy infrastructure company founded to address energy poverty and accelerate the world’s transition to reliable The company owns and operates natural gas and LNG infrastructure and an integrated fleet of ships and logistics assets to rapidly deliver turnkey energy solutions to global markets Riverside communities in Barcarena have been enduring the negative effects of pollution caused by aluminium mining for many years the affected population are forcing accountability on the European multinationals that are profiting from the pollution.  Around 11,000 families from the Brazilian state of Pará are seeking compensation for damage caused to the communities of Barcarena and Abaetetuba Victims have been exposed to toxic residues from the processing of aluminium which can cause health problems such as increased incidences of cancer The Municipality of Barcarena and its neighbouring communities have suffered from several serious environmental disasters in the past 20 years as a direct consequence of the activities of aluminium producers.  and red mud contaminated the Murucupi river The levels of aluminium on the water were up to 73 times higher than normal and the levels of other dangerous elements on the river such as cadmium (linked to several diseases including cancer) and copper (which can cause the death of fish) were also higher than recommended by the Brazilian National Environmental Council – CONAMA.   a large amount of red sludge leaked once again polluting several springs and rivers and putting residents at risk This disaster was investigated by the Brazilian authorities who discovered three clandestine pipes which were directly releasing toxic waste into nature.   Pogust Goodhead represents thousands of victims seeking justice for at least ten environmental disasters at the aluminium production and mining sites belonging to Norsk Hydro Among the claimants are a significant number of Afro-Brazilian Quilombolas.   The Quilombolas are descendants of African slaves brought to Brazil Many depend on the waterways of the Amazon and its tributaries with 1,831 officially recognised Quilombo settlements in the Amazon and 528 of those in the state of Pará.  The effects of the 10 pollutive incidents have resulted in many of the Indigenous communities and Quilombolas suffering from poor physical health as well as taking away their income and access to food and clean water The life they once had where they relied upon the rivers and wells for food has gone and they have been left with no choice but to leave their homes and weaknesses in their bodies as well as anxiety and panic attacks In a judgment handed down by the Court of Rotterdam in November 2022 Pogust Goodhead was successful in securing the jurisdiction of the Dutch courts in the claim against Norsk Hydro.   The Rotterdam District Court ruled that the case can proceed into the merits phase We represent a diverse range of clients against multi-national corporations Pogust Goodhead (a trading name of PGMBM Law Ltd) SRA License Number 512898 Pogust Goodhead is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority and complies with the Solicitors Code of Conduct, a copy of which can be located here Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome Content does not constitute legal advice or the creation of an attorney-client relationship You should not act or rely on the basis of information on this site without seeking the advice of an attorney Pogust Goodhead (a trading name of PGMBM Law Ltd) SRA License Number 512898.Pogust Goodhead is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority and complies with the Solicitors Code of Conduct, a copy of which can be located here New Fortress Energy has announced the Barcarena LNG terminal in Brazil is now operating while a new agreement on LNG sales and LPG time charters have been signed New Fortress Energy has announced its 6-mta (300 TBtu) Barcarena LNG terminal is now operational with the Energos Celsius FSRU on-site NFE’s Barcarena LNG terminal serves as a crucial natural gas supply source notably fuelling Norsk Hydro’s Alunorte refinery reducing CO2 emissions by an estimated 700,000 tonnes annually and advancing regional decarbonisation efforts Capital Gas is believed to have added four more 174,000-m3 LNG carriers to its orderbook The company has four LNG carriers in the water This is one of four similar vessels to be delivered from Hyundai group shipyards in 2024 there are six more 174,000-m3 LNG carriers waiting to be delivered between 2026 and 2027 with a further four 22,000-m3 CO2 carriers and 88,000-m3 very large ammonia carriers on order Avance Gas Holding has agreed a new one-year variable time charter for the dual-fuel VLGC 2022-built Avance Polaris with an energy major Avance Polaris has been on a two-year variable time charter since delivery in early 2022 "This time charter has a variable hire linked to spot market rates,” Avance Gas chief executive Øystein Kalleklev commented He added that the company obtains economic benefits as the ship has lower average freight costs than a traditional VLGC from approximately 10% higher cargo intake 10-15% lower fuel consumption and is equipped to burn LPG Woodside and KOGAS sign agreement for long-term LNG supply Woodside and KOGAS have signed agreement for long-term LNG supply to South Korea The SPA provides for the supply of approximately 0.5 mta of LNG for 10.5 years on a delivered basis LNG delivered to KOGAS under the sale and purchase agreement (SPA) will be sourced from uncommitted volumes across Woodside’s global portfolio including the Scarborough Energy Project which is targeting first LNG cargo in 2026 TotalEnergies to supply a division of Sembcorp in Singapore with LNG TotalEnergies has signed an SPA with Sembcorp Fuels a wholly owned subsidiary of Singapore-based Sembcorp Industries to deliver up to 0.8 mta of LNG for 16 years This new agreement adds to the companies’ current SPA ADNOC and BP have agreed to establish a new joint venture in Egypt with BP holding a 51% stake and ADNOC holding 49% BP will contribute its interests in three development concessions and exploration agreements in Egypt to the JV while ADNOC will provide a proportionate cash contribution for future growth opportunities The concessions to be included in the JV consist of the Shorouk along with exploration agreements in various regions Riviera Maritime Media’s LNG Shipping & Terminals Conference will be held in London, 12 November 2024, click here to register your interest in this industry-leading event NEW YORK — New Fortress Energy’s (NFE) offshore Barcarena LNG terminal at the entrance to the Amazon River in Pará The development includes the Energos Celsius FSRU on site.  the terminal is the sole natural gas supply source in the state of Pará and Brazil’s North region The complex will supply 6 MMt/year of LNG to various industrial customers including Norsk Hydro’s Alunorte refinery said to be the world’s largest alumina refinery in the world.  NFE claims it will cut the refinery’s annual CO2 emissions by about 700,000 metric tons annually Barcarena will supply gas to NFE’s 630-MW power plant currently under construction alongside the terminal It should be ready for service during third-quarter 2025 NFE has further plans to use the infrastructure to expand its power complex by 1.6 GW under a New Power Project PPA the company has secured financing commitments of $700 million for a second FLNG project at Altamira and expects to complete construction early in 2026 Forgot your password? Subscribe to Natural Gas World Premium for less than 55¢ per day accurate and reliable content on global gas matters experts and researchers as well as respected stakeholders the opportunity to present their qualified views on natural gas matters SUBSCRIBE The death of a Brazilian community leader followed concerns about contaminated water around the aluminium plant but its Norwegian owners deny responsibility the small communities near an industrial park in Barcarena complained that a Norwegian-owned aluminium plant and other factories were contaminating their water causing diarrhoea and vomiting and poisoning fish and local produce In November they launched a $154m legal claim for environmental and moral damages against the Pará state government the Hydro Alunorte alumina refinery and the Albras aluminium factory The Norwegian company Norsk Hydro owns 92% of Hydro Alunorte and 51% of Albras Community organisers began to receive threats which brought floods of red-coloured water and mud He was a leading member of a community group known as Cainquiama said they believe his death was connected to their campaign Norsk Hydro’s senior vice-president of media relations said Nascimento’s death was “a tragic murder” and a matter for the police “Hydro strongly disapproves any action of this nature and repudiates any type of association between its activities and actions against residents and communities of Barcarena,” Molland said Police are not currently planning to question company staff Nascimento’s killing comes just weeks after government researchers said they found evidence of a contaminating leak from the alumina refinery “We have been threatened since we denounced the company,” said Bosco Martins Júnior, 42, a leader of Cainquiama, which stands for the Amazon Association of Mixed Race, Indigenous and Quilombolas (descendants of enslaved people) After Martins Júnior reported threats in January a state prosecutor requested protection for the group but the then security secretary said the decision had to be made by the state council for the protection of human rights defenders Norsk Hydro describes the Alunorte plant as the world’s largest alumina refinery. The company’s biggest shareholder, with 34%, is the Norwegian government, which contributes towards Brazil’s environmental protection and last year rebuked President Michel Temer over rising deforestation and moves to reduce protection president of a commercial association in nearby Beja said the area had suffered from pollution for years the fruit are not the same as they were before,” he said Local people have suffered health problems including diarrhoea During heavy rains between 16 and 18 February people living near the plant’s two reject basins reported floods of contaminated red water and mud Heavy rains in February caused flooding of red water around the plant’s two reject basins Photograph: Evandro Chagas Institute“It started to inundate the homes of people near the basin – the streams started to receive this red mud the colour of the streams started to change dead fish started appearing,” Cardoso said The company denies it was responsible for the floods and said various factors could have caused long-term contamination in the area But it has admitted making unauthorised discharges of rainwater that might have mixed with bauxite dust and caustic soda traces On 17 February state government officials flew over the affected area and photographed areas within the company’s plant flooded with red water a research institute in Belém that is part of the Brazil’s ministry of health found areas inside and outside the plant flooded with the same coloured water high levels of contamination – and a waste pipe that was not officially supposed to exist “This clandestine pipeline emptied effluents from inside the company to the environment,” said Marcelo Lima In a stream in the nearby community of Bom Futuro Lima’s team found aluminium levels of 22mg per litre well above Brazil’s legal limit of 0.1mg per litre Around the clandestine waste pipe the level was nearly 6,000 mg per litre “This is the Amazon – it is very sad to accept this pollution in our rivers,” said Lima Courts ordered the company to reduce production by 50% and stop using one rejects basin which only had a licence for testing Norsk Hydro’s chief financial officer and head of Brazilian operations denied the company was responsible for any flooding or leaks “We did not find any indication that anything has flown over or overflowed from the deposit areas,” he said very difficult situation for the local population.” Norsk Hydro said that internal flooding at its plant had caused ‘no significant environmental impact’. Photograph: Evandro Chagas InstituteMolland said some internal flooding was caused by a pump failure but all excess water was channelled towards the water treatment system. Hydro’s own testing in the area showed “no significant environmental impact”. Kallevik said the company was distributing water to local communities and had launched two investigations. Marcelo Lima’s team have since found another channel which he said allowed raw effluents to flow into a nearby river. Hydro said it made unauthorised discharges, including “PH-treated rainwater”, through this channel on 17 February and periodically from 20-25 February. “Rainwater from the refinery area may contain bauxite dust and traces of caustic soda, but the water had not been in contact with the bauxite residue deposit areas,” it said. After a previous leak in 2009, Simone Pereira, a professor of chemistry at the Federal University of Pará, found high levels of cadmium and aluminium. In 2014, she conducted a study of subterranean water quality around Barcarena – where most people get their water from wells – and found it was unsuitable for consumption, with levels of aluminium, phosphorus and lead above legal limits. “All of this is done in the name of progress, in the name of development,” Pereira said. “Is this too high a price we are paying?” Combine harvester pours soybeans in a truck in Campo Novo do Parecis, Mato Grosso, Brazil on March 27, 2012.(YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP/GettyImages) A northern route for Mato Grosso's agricultural output will take pressure off Brazil's southeastern ports.... On April 25, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff traveled to the northeastern city of Barcarena in Para state to attend the opening ceremony of the Miritituba-Barcarena port complex The $320 million complex has two terminals — one in Miritituba on the Tapajos River and the other at the Port of Vila do Conde in Barcarena on the Para River The terminals will handle grain shipments from Brazil's landlocked state of Mato Grosso and ease pressure on Brazil's overloaded Santos and Paranagua ports in the southeast Mato Grosso's grain will first travel 965 kilometers (600 miles) by truck from the interior along highway BR-163 to Miritituba the shipments will be offloaded onto barges and taken down the Tapajos River the new route will cut transportation time by 20 percent and reduce costs substantially The project is just one component of Brazil's broader push to open up the "northern exit" for grain shipments to Europe and Asia via the Atlantic Ocean.