Petrobras has agreed to a Brazilian government request to keep a deep-water drilling rig on standby for operations in the Foz do Amazonas basin, despite failing to secure a licence to run even a pre-operational test ahead of the wildcat that is planned there.

Last week, federal environmental regulator Ibama rejected Petrobras’ plans to drill the Morpho wildcat in Block FZA-M-59 due to a set of “technical inconsistencies” in the application form submitted by the state-controlled company.

Petrobras claimed it was caught off guard by the decision and, without a permit in hand, announced it was mobilising the Ocyan drillship ODN II to the Campos and Santos basins instead.