Page 13 - LatAmOil Week 44 2021

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“In oil terms, of the five most productive wells in figure. Fields in the Vaca Muerta formation
the country, the company YPF occupies the first yielded 44.205 mcm per day in September, just
position, while the second and third place cor- 0.2% below the previous month, it added.
responds to the ExxonMobil company,” it wrote. These figures appear to be in line with official
The consultancy also noted in its report data published by Argentina’s Energy Secretar-
that Argentina had extracted 133.672mn cubic iat, which has reported that the country saw gas
metres per day of natural and unconventional output hit 133 mcm per day in September, the
gas in September, down 0.8% on the August second-highest monthly figure ever recorded. ™

ECUADOR
Ecuador gears up to call new tender for

Las Emeraldas refinery operating contract

ECUADOR’S government may call a new ten- with world market trends. To this end, his gov-
der for the right to operate the 110,000 barrel per ernment adopted a formula to close the gap
day (bpd) Las Esmeraldas refinery before the between domestic and world market prices by
end of this month, according to Energy Minister indexing the former to prices for WTI crude oil.
Juan Carlos Bermeo. The adjustment process has sparked a
In an interview with Argus Media last week, number of protests across Ecuador, and Lasso
Bermeo said the Energy Ministry would be announced on October 22, 2021 that his govern-
ready to launch the bidding contest once Presi- ment intended to move prices upward and then
dent Guillermo Lasso authorised it to proceed. impose a temporary halt on increases. Despite
This is likely to happen within the next few the price freeze, however, that last adjustment
weeks, he stated. sparked protests in Quito and in six provinces
“We could launch the refinery tender in on October 26-27.
November,” he commented. “Everything is
ready, including the terms of reference and the Oil production set to rise
model contract.” In related news, Bermeo also told Argus Media
The minister also confirmed that Ecuador’s last week that Ecuador was on track to see
government expected the winner of the bidding crude oil production top 580,000 bpd next year.
contest to commit to operating Las Esmer- The country will probably see output average
aldas and to building a new deep conversion 515,000 bpd or more this year, rising to 583,000
unit capable of processing heavy crude oil and bpd in 2022, he said.
turning out petroleum products that contain no Official data show that Ecuador extracted
more than 10 ppm of sulphur. The latter initia- some 493,600 bpd of crude in the first nine
tive will reduce the share of residual fuel oil in months of 2021, Argus Media noted. As such,
the refinery’s total output to 5-8% and allow the the country will have to boost output quickly
plant to turn out motor fuels that meet Euro-5 in order to achieve the targets cited by Bermeo.
emissions standards, he said. According to the energy minister, though, this
“The deep conversion refinery will cut that scenario is feasible, since new production capac-
residual product to 5-8% [of production],” he ity will come online before the end of 2021 and
told Argus Media. Currently, residual fuel oil again in 2022.
accounts for about 30% of the refinery’s output. “We expect 40,000 bpd of additional produc-
Bermeo also said he did not expect the gov- tion compared with the July level of 486,000 bpd,
ernment’s recent decision to freeze domestic bringing [the total] to 526,000 bpd by Decem-
petroleum product prices to deter potential ber,” he said. “We are doing everything we can to
investors, arguing that the controls would affect reach this target. We’ll see if there is a delay until
fuel sellers and not fuel producers. “[Private-sec- January. If we had not done anything, the decline
tor] responsibility ends at the refinery gate,” he would have continued, and we would have fallen
declared. “This is a private-sector delegation of to 442,000 bpd.”
refining, not related to sales. The private sector In 2022, he added, the national oil company
will deliver determined volumes of gasoline, (NOC) Petroecuador will raise yields by bring-
diesel and fuel oil for sale.” ing Ishpingo, a heavy crude field, on stream. The
Ecuador’s government has been subsidis- company is likely to be preparatory work at Plat-
ing domestic fuel prices for decades, but for- forms A and B soon, since its board of directors
mer President Lenin Moreno revealed in May is due to approve a drilling contract for the site
2020 that he wanted local rates to fall into line in early November, he said. ™

Week 44 04•November•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P13