President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said on Friday (18) that Brazil's Equatorial Margin, an offshore oil frontier on the country's northern coast, has the potential to become a "new pre-salt", and that the oil found there appears to be of even higher quality. Speaking at a Federal Highway Police base in Rio de Janeiro during a public security event, the president, who is running for reelection, said Brazil must protect its natural wealth from the interest of US President Donald Trump in oil, critical minerals and rare earths.

It was when he compared Brazil's two oil frontiers that Lula put numbers to the discovery. According to InfoMoney, he said:

"We have oil in the Equatorial Margin, 175 kilometers off the coast of Amapá. The pre-salt is 300 kilometers out. We have to take care of it, because Trump is out there, after critical minerals and oil."

The pre-salt, ultradeep reserves beneath a thick layer of salt off Brazil's southeastern coast, yields high quality oil and accounts for much of the country's oil and gas output, according to news outlet G1. "There is oil there... possibly the new pre-salt. It seems to be of higher quality," Lula said, in remarks reported by G1 with information from Reuters.

The Morpho field, off the coast of Amapá

The president's comparison rests on recent facts. State-controlled Petrobras has announced an oil discovery at the Morpho field, in the Foz do Amazonas Basin off the coast of Amapá, within the Equatorial Margin, and has already received a license from Ibama, Brazil's federal environmental licensing agency, to expand exploration in nearby wells. For Lula, defending these resources is part of the wider global race for inputs such as the minerals used in technology and energy. "Trump is after critical minerals, oil and rare earths. No, this here is ours," he said, to applause from an audience made up mostly of security officers.

Strain with Washington

The speech came amid friction between the two governments. On the same occasion, Lula again rejected the Trump administration's designation of Brazilian criminal factions as terrorist organizations. "I don't accept the idea that gangs of criminals are terrorists, as Trump says," he declared. The event, according to InfoMoney, launched integrated public security actions in Rio, where the president also described border policing as a matter of national sovereignty. On oil, Lula said the government will need major investments to keep control of these riches in a country of continental size. Meanwhile, exploration moves ahead through the regulatory route, with Ibama's license allowing Petrobras to expand drilling in wells next to Morpho, at the mouth of the Amazon River.