Page 10 - LatAmOil Week 28

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NEWS IN BRIEF
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UPSTREAM
Dominican Republic kicks off first bidding round
e Dominican Republic began accepting o ers for 14 onshore and o shore blocks last week, marking the start of its rst licensing round with a roadshow presentation in Houston.
e country’s Ministry of Energy and Mines said that potential investors would be able to bid on one onshore block in the Azua Basin, six onshore blocks in the Cibao Basin, three onshore blocks in the Enriquillo Basin and 4 o shore blocks in the San Pedro Basin.
e roadshow reportedly drew interest from US companies, including supermajor ExxonMo- bil, and from rms based in Canada, Ecuador, China and Europe. The Dominican Repub- lic’s Minister of Energy and Mines Antonio Isa Conde described the response to the pres- entation as positive, saying that his agency was “receiving very good signals.”
Hocol concludes 4 new exploration deals
Hocol, a subsidiary of Colombia’s national oil company (NOC) Ecopetrol, has signed four new exploration contracts following the conclusion of the country’s rst bidding round. One of the contracts covers COR-9, a block located in the south-eastern part of the country. Hocol intends to explore the eld on its own and will invest about $16mn in the project.
The other three contracts provide for the Ecopetrol a liate to team up with GeoPark at Blocks 86, 87 and 104, all located within Llanos
Orientales.
e partners intend to split equity in these
three sites on a 50:50 basis and will drill six exploration wells there at a total cost of $80- 100mn over a period of three years.
Ecopetrol, Parex find oil in Boranda-2 ST well
Colombia’s national oil company (NOC) Eco- petrol and its Calgary-based partner Parex have found oil in Boranda-2 ST, a well drilled at the Boranda block near Rio Negro, a town in Santander Department.
Ecopetrol revealed last week that it had con- firmed the discovery of crude with a specific gravity of 23 degrees API a er sinking the well to a nal depth of 3,942 metres. During initial testing, the well yielded a total of 2,397 barrels of oil that had accumulated, with production aver- aging 960 barrels per day (bpd), it said.
Boranda-2 ST is the second well that Eco- petrol and Parex have drilled at the block. e parties sank the well from the same platform that they used to drill the Boranda-1 production well.
e NOC has a 50% stake in the Boranda project, while its Canadian partner owns the other 50% and serves as operator.
Australia’s Karoon Energy
submits highest bid for
Brazil’s Bauna project
Australia’s Karoon Energy is optimistic about its chances of winning a 100% stake in BM-S-40, also known as Bauna, an oil-containing block located o shore Brazil in the Santos Basin.
In a statement submitted to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASE), Karoon con rmed that it had submitted the highest bid for the con- tract area. It did not reveal the size of its o er, but other sources reported that the company had indicated that it was ready to pay more than $750mn. is put it well ahead of the sec- ond-highest bidder, PetroRio, which offered around $600mn.
Bauna rst came on stream in 2013 and pro- duced about 45,000 barrels per day (bpd) of light crude oil in 2016, the last year for which con rmed data were available as of press time.
MIDSTREAM
Argentina seeks contractor
for gas pipeline from
Neuquen to Buenos Aires
e government of Argentina has called a ten- der for the construction of a natural gas pipeline from Neuquen Province to Buenos Aires, the capital city.
e Energy Secretariat began the process of seeking a contractor for the project last week, with the publication of a notice in the govern- ment’s official bulletin. In the notice, it esti- mated the value of the contract, which includes a 17-year operating licence, at about $1.2bn. It also stated that the winner of the bidding contest would be tasked with designing and building a pipeline from Tratayen, a town in Neuquen, to Salliquelo.
e link will be able to pump up to 22mn cubic metres per day (8.03bn cubic metres per year), according to previous reports.
PETROCHEMICALS
YPFB signs gas supply
agreement with Russian
fertiliser manufacturer
Bolivia’s national oil company (NOC) YPFB has wrapped up a natural gas supply deal with Akron, a Russian fertiliser producer.
e agreement, which was signed on July 11, calls for the NOC to ship 2.2mn cubic metres per day of gas to Akron. YPFB is due to begin ship- ments in 2023 and will continue to do so for a period of 20 years.
Hydrocarbons Minister Luis Alberto Sanchez praised the deal, saying that the company had successfully “consolidated a new market for Bolivian gas.”
Akron will use the gas to manufacture urea and ammonia in Brazil, and it intends to set up a
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Week 28 17•July•2019