Page 12 - LatAmOil Week 44 2021

LatAmOil BRAZIL LatAmOil

Bolsonaro began talking about privatising Petrobras last onth (Photo: Wikimedia)

Ilan Arbetman, an analyst at Ativa Investimen- “Right now, timing is weighing on it, even more
tos, told Reuters last week that the privatisation than the president’s inclination.”
of Petrobras would have to be done cautiously. He added that plans for the sale of Eletrobras
“When we talk about privatising Petrobras, we had been under discussion for a considerable
need to be careful, because it’s a broad process amount of time before Brasilia decided earlier
that involves a lot of stakeholders,” he said. this year to go forward. ™

ARGENTINA
New report says Argentina’s oil

output is above March 2020 levels

ARGENTINA’S crude oil output has risen
above the levels reported in March 2020, before
the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic began
to affect upstream operations, according to
Regional Investment Consulting SA (RICSA).
The Buenos Aires-based private consultancy
said in a report released last week that the coun-
try’s yields had risen to a record high of 532,566
barrels per day in September 2021. This is about
0.7% above the previous record high of 528,782
bpd posted in March of last year, the report said.
Argentina’s government imposed a national
lockdown in response to the pandemic on
March 19, 2020. The new measures hit the oil
industry hard and caused production levels to
sink, but they have shown signs of recovery since Petrobras’ gross debts have dropped below $60bn (File Photo)
late last year.
These positive signs were present in the Vaca output. The August figure was about 10% above
Muerta shale formation, one of Argentina’s the number reported for March 2020, it said.
most promising production provinces, RICSA’s RICSA also identified the national oil com-
report commented. It noted that Vaca Muerta pany (NOC) YPF and US-based ExxonMobil as
sites had yielded 174,416 bpd in August of this the operators of Argentina’s five most productive
year, equivalent to 33% of the country’s total oil wells.

P12 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 44 04•November•2021