Page 13 - LatAmOil Week 09 2023
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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)



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