Page 13 - LatAmOil Week 09 2023
P. 13
LatAmOil BRAZIL LatAmOil
Seacrest aims to become the third-largest pro- According to Wood Mackenzie, since inde-
ducer of oil and gas onshore in Brazil in terms of pendent operators are set to invest $10bn in the
reserves and production, according to the com- assets purchased from Petrobras by 2027, pro-
pany’s president, Michael Stewart. Stewart was duction could rise to a peak of 485,000 bpd and
quoted in a company statement as saying last reserves could grow by 980mn boe.
week that high-margin cash flow production The UK-based consultancy arrived at these
would let Seacrest grow and plan the return of figures after surveying upstream sites acquired
capital to shareholders in the short term. by companies such as 3R Petroleum, Enauta,
The company’s fields are estimated to hold BW Energy, Eneva, Karoon, PetroReconcavo,
1.2bn barrels of oil equivalent (boe) in place, and Perenco, Trident Energy and PRIO.
its certified 2P (proved plus probable) reserves
amount to 140mn boe.
Seacrest is not the only independent Bra-
zilian firm seeking to revitalise mature fields
formerly operated by Petrobras and sold to
privately owned producers in recent years.
ECUADOR
Petroecuador hopes to wrap up
repair work on SOTE system quickly
ECUADOR’S national oil company (NOC) Fernando Santos, the country may need sev-
Petroecuador reported on February 27 that eral weeks to bring crude oil production back
it expected to wrap up repair work on the up to prior levels. “Turning off wells is simple,
Trans-Ecuadorian Oil Pipeline System (SOTE), but restarting them is a bit complicated,” he
one of the country’s main crude transportation commented. “We’re talking about maybe some
networks, the following day. three weeks.”
In a statement, Petroecuador said it intended He was speaking after Petroecuador repre-
to restart oil flows gradually, assuming that sentatives said the NOC would be able to start
weather and climate conditions remain favour- pumping oil again within around seven days.
able. As of February 27, the NOC had completed Both SOTE and OCP have had to suspend
89% of the technical and contingency work on operations frequently to repair the damage
the line since the collapse of a bridge near the caused by falling rocks, landslides and erosion
pipeline in Napo Province last week. in the Amazon uplands where Ecuador’s larg-
That collapse led the company to halt ship- est oilfields lie. However, the most recent week’s
ments of crude oil through SOTE, which has a incident occurred at a different location than
throughput capacity of 360,000 barrels per day previous ones in 2020 and 2021.
(bpd), on February 22 and declare force majeure In an effort to forestall future breakages,
the next day. OCP Ecuador, the privately owned Petroecuador has stated that it will build an
group that owns and operates the Heavy Crude eighth bypass line for the SOTE system, as well
Pipeline (OCP) system, did the same, citing as a sixth bypass line for the Shushufindi-Quito
the need for preventive measures. (The latter petroleum product pipeline.
network, which runs parallel to SOTE in the
affected region, has a design capacity of 450,000
bpd but typically handles about 180,000 bpd.)
Once Petroecuador completes repair work at
the site of the bridge collapse, it will gradually
restart pumping oil through SOTE and consider
lifting the declaration of force majeure.
Since the shutdown of the pipeline, the NOC
has been gradually shutting oil wells in the Ama-
zon region. As a result, its production levels were
reported to have dropped to 185,373 bpd, down
by nearly half, as of February 26. Official figures
show that private companies’ output had fallen
to 58,304 bpd as of the same date.
According to Ecuador’s Energy Minister SOTE has a capacity of 360,000 bpd (Image: Ecuador Ministry of Hydrocarbons)
Week 09 01•March•2023 www. NEWSBASE .com P13