Page 13 - LatAmOil Week 48 2021

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The partners hope to find oil in the Delray complex (Image: President Energy)

President Energy completes Pirity farm-out

AIM-LISTED President Energy said last week the Delray complex, which is estimated to con-
that it had completed the sale of half of its 100% tain more than 260mn barrels of oil in Pmean
stake in the Pirity concession in Paraguay via a unrisked resources. President has put the
farm-out deal. chances of success at this site at 30%.
In a statement, President named the buyer In last week’s statement, President said it still
of the stake as CPC, the national oil company intended to spud the new well in the first half
(NOC) of Taiwan. It reported that CPC had of 2022. “The location of the exploration well
finalised the acquisition of its 50% stake in within the complex has been identified, and
Pirity through a subsidiary after satisfying all planning has begun for the drilling of the well
previously announced conditions of sale. The in the first half of 2022 after the end of the rainy
partners will now move forward with work at season,” it noted.
the concession, with President continuing to The chosen drilling site has a more promis-
serve as operator under an international form ing geological profile than the locations where
of a joint operating agreement (JOA), the state President drilled two exploration wells in 2014,
explained. the statement commented. The new well “is in a
Peter Levine, the chairman of President, different part of the concession, with completely
expressed satisfaction with the deal, saying: differing sub-surface features and structure,”
“We are very pleased to have CPC as a partner it explained. (Earlier this year, the company
in our oil business in Paraguay and look forward described the Delray complex as the section of
to working with them … It is clear CPC have Pirity that is most similar in geological terms to
significant in-house expertise and that their Palmar Largo, a group of fields about 100 km
involvement in this project has been carefully away in Argentina.)
and thoroughly considered from a technical The company has been working at Pirity
point of view. Their expertise will be mutually since 2012. It carried out an exploration pro-
beneficial going forward.” gramme that involved the collection of more
President signed an agreement on the farm- than 1,000 km of 2-D seismic data and 850
out deal in June of this year but did not imme- square km of 3-D seismic data from the block
diately name the buyer of the 50% stake, citing in 2013-2014 and then proceeded to drill two
confidentiality commitments. At the time, it exploration wells.
said that it intended to sell the stake in Pirity to These wells identified a petroleum system in
a firm based in North America and described the northern section of the block and encoun-
the buyer as a “substantial” state-owned investor tered significant shows of hydrocarbons, but
that had set up a special purpose vehicle (SPV) were never brought into commercial produc-
for the purpose of joining the project. tion. President then decided to focus on the
It also said that its partner in the farm-out Delray complex, which appeared to be more
deal had offered to pay $4mn and cover 60% of prospective than the original target.
the estimated $10-15mn bill for drilling a new President hopes to use oil from the Pirity
exploration well as compensation for its stake concession to produce refined fuels for Para-
in Pirity. The parties have already agreed on guay’s domestic market. This will benefit the
the location of this well, which will be drilled to country, which has been importing all of the
a depth of 3,750 metres, it said. The shaft will petroleum products it consumes via barge ship-
target a set of subsurface prospects known as ments up the River Plate. ™

Week 48 02•December•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P13