Page 13 - LatAmOil Week 27 2022

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“Once the force majeure has been overcome, we of the fact that protesters had seized control
will officially notify parties to co-ordinate the of multiple oilfields and were forcibly halting
operational restart and rescheduling,” he wrote. production or sabotaging equipment at some
Petroecuador declared force majeure late last locations.
month, in the face of expectations that CONAIE These slowdowns and stoppages led Petro-
and its supporters were preparing to stage a ecuador to say on July 1 that it had lost about
nationwide strike. By the time it did so, oil pro- 1.99mn barrels of oil production since mid-
duction levels were already sinking as a result June. ™

Petroecuador said it had restored 93% of lost production as of July 5 (Photo: Twitter/@EPPETROECUADOR)

GLOBAL
Late head of OPEC says downstream

factors play key role in oil price volatility

MOHAMMAD Sanusi Barkindo, the late secre- of fuel,” he said. “Refinery closures in recent
tary-general of OPEC, said just hours before his years, coupled with a number of untimely acci-
death on July 5 that capacity constraints in the dents at important regional refineries, have
downstream sector were making a more signifi- curtailed supplies and helped create the energy
cant contribution to the volatility of world crude market volatility of recent months.”
oil prices than many industry observers realised. Barkindo said he had referred to this point
Speaking to the Nigerian newspaper Van- in a speech at the Nigeria Oil & Gas Conference
guard, Barkindo said upstream operators were & Exhibition (NOG) on July 5. He also stressed
all too often blamed for fluctuations in prices. that the constraint on the downstream sector
Producers have become “a favourite scapegoat was a global phenomenon that was not being
for the current market conditions,” he remarked. addressed in a consistent way in every region.
This focus on upstream operations overlooks Overall, he stated, worldwide refining
the constraints created in other parts of the value capacity dropped by more than 330,000 bar-
chain, he said. “[This] discounts the current rels per day (bpd) in 2021 “and remained below
capacity challenges that also plague the down- pre-pandemic levels last year, despite the robust
stream, especially with regard to transportation global economic rebound.” ™

Week 26 30•June•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P13