NORGES BANK INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT, BlackRock, Elliott and Vanguard— all among BP’s largest shareholders over the past 12 months — declined to comment to Repórter Brasil on allegations that environmental damage was caused by construction works at a sugar mill operated by one of the company’s subsidiaries in Brazil.
According to complaints submitted to the Tocantins State Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP-TO) in September 2025, the installation of a water pipeline intended to irrigate sugarcane plantations and supply water to Pedro Afonso Bioenergia’s ethanol plant allegedly altered the natural flow of local waterways, destroyed springs, and affected fish breeding areas in the Tocantins River. Pedro Afonso Bioenergia is a subsidiary of BP Bionergy, a company controlled by BP.
In May 2026, a new complaint accused the company of clearing approximately 5,000 hectares of the Cerrado biome—the equivalent of approximately 7,000 football fields—to establish cultivation areas intended for irrigation. The deforestation allegedly took place without environmental studies proportionate to the scale of the intervention.
:: Read also: Brazil prosecutors examine whether BP’s ethanol plant caused environmental damage in the state of Tocantins ::
BP investors remain silent
BP is a publicly traded British multinational whose shares are listed on major stock exchanges around the world. One of its largest shareholders is Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), which manages the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund on behalf of the Norwegian government. In a statement to Repórter Brasil, NBIM said only that it applies climate and nature guidelines across its investment portfolio but does not comment on single investments in the portfolio (read the full response here).
In a document outlining its expectations on nature for portfolio companies, the fund states that companies should “demonstrate whether they have eliminated deforestation and peatland loss from their business activities and value chains” and respect “the right to free, prior and informed consent for indigenous people”.
According to data from LSEG, the global financial markets infrastructure and data provider, investment managers BlackRock, Elliott, and Vanguard ranked among BP’s largest shareholders in 2025. None responded to Repórter Brasil‘s requests for comment.
In its official stewardship guidance on natural capital, BlackRock states that it expects companies with significant impacts on natural habitats to “publish no-deforestation policies and strategies on biodiversity.” Vanguard, meanwhile, says that corporate boards should exercise “oversight of material risks”—including environmental risks—that could affect long-term investment returns.
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Elliott, for its part, does not publish environmental or social commitments. On the contrary, the firm has been pressing BP to abandon its renewable energy ambitions and refocus on oil and gas production—a campaign that coincided with the British multinational’s 2025 announcement that it would cut approximately US$5 billion a year from its low-carbon investments.
Eduardo Trevisan, a specialist in agricultural supply chains and biofuels at Imaflora, a Brazilian organization that works on certification, auditing, and environmental and social sustainability, criticized BP’s investors for remaining silent in the face of the allegations involving the company’s Brazilian subsidiary.
According to Trevisan, investors have a range of monitoring tools at their disposal. “Precisely to reduce environmental and social risks, investors can require prior assessments, due diligence, and audits before financing a processing plant or an agricultural or forestry operation,” he said.
Merel van der Mark, coordinator of Forests & Finance, an international coalition that monitors financial flows linked to deforestation, said financial institutions exposed to a global company have an obligation to assess environmental and social risks at its local subsidiaries.
“That oversight should continue even after the financial relationship has been established, especially when one of those operations becomes the target of an environmental investigation,” she said.
Company denies wrongdoing
In a statement submitted to the MP-TO, Pedro Afonso Bioenergia denied any wrongdoing and said the works are part of “a standard agricultural irrigation project” licensed by Naturatins (the state environmental agency), and monitored by the competent authorities. The company reiterated the arguments in a statement to Repórter Brasil, but did not answer questions about the impacts of the water pipeline system or the allegations that five thousand hectares of native vegetation had been cleared. The company also declined to comment on whether the Xerente Indigenous people, who live in the region, had been consulted about the project’s potential impacts (see more details below). (Read the full response here)
Pedro Afonso Bioenergia’s plant is certified under RenovaBio, the Brazilian government’s national biofuels policy, which allows companies to sell a type of carbon credit known as CBIOs. The sale of CBIOs is based on the greenhouse gas emissions avoided by replacing fossil fuels with renewable sources such as sugarcane ethanol. However, certified producers must demonstrate that the biomass used does not originate from areas that have been recently deforested.
However, the BP Bioenergy plant in Tocantins could lose its RenovaBio certification if the allegations are confirmed and found to be related to certified areas or to information provided during the certification process, Brazil’s National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP) confirmed to Repórter Brasil.
Another issue involving Pedro Afonso Bioenergia’s irrigation project concerns its potential impacts on the Xerente Indigenous Territory. According to an open letter published in June this year by the Student Front in Defense of the Tocantins River and the Environment, the project is located within a 10-kilometer radius of the territory, a distance that, under Interministerial Ordinance No. 60/2015, requires the National Foundation of Indigenous Peoples (Funai) to issue an opinion as part of the environmental licensing process.
According to the letter, Funai did not respond to an official request on the matter that Naturatins had sent within the regulatory deadline. The continuation of the licensing process without that opinion would, according to the Student Front, violate International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention 169 and Article 231 of Brazil’s Federal Constitution, which guarantee traditional communities the right to free, prior, and informed consultation regarding projects that may affect their territories.
In response to questions from Repórter Brasil, Funai’s office in Palmas, Tocantins, stated that the Student Front’s complaint alleging violations of the rights of the Indigenous peoples of the Xerente Indigenous Territory is under review by the General Coordination for Environmental Impact Assessment in Brasília (Federal District) (read the full response here).
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