Page 11 - LatAmOil Week 28

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NEWS IN BRIEF
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joint venture with YPFB for the purpose of sell- ing these materials. e Russian company will also provide YPFB with technical expertise to facilitate the development of urea and ammonia production facilities within Bolivia.
SERVICES
Siemens to supply turbines for Eni’s Block 1 FPSO
Germany’s Siemens has agreed to supply the nat- ural gas- red turbines that will power the oat- ing production, storage and o oading (FPSO) vessel that Eni intends to deploy at Mizton, a section of Mexico’s o shore Block 1.
e German conglomerate will provide three 34-MW SGT-A35 gas turbine power generation packages to MODEC, the Japanese company that has been contracted to design, build, install and operate the FPSO. e parties have not dis- closed the value of the deal, but Siemens noted that MODEC was due to bring the vessel online at Mizton in 2021.
e FPSO will be able to handle 90,000 bar- rels per day (bpd) of crude oil and be able to store 900,000 barrels, it added. Eni has said it will install the vessel at a site that lies about 10 km from the coast in 32-metre-deep water.
POLICY
Mexican president
promises additional tax
breaks for Pemex
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obra- dor said last week that his government intended to offer additional tax breaks to Pemex, the national oil company (NOC), next year.
e 2020 budget bill will make provisions for these concessions, he said. Lopez Obrador did not divulge any details of the plan, but he did indicate that he was taking action in the hope of strengthening the NOC.
“We want to lower Pemex’s tax burden. We are assessing it now,” he was quoted as saying by Reuters. e government has already taken a closer look at this issue, he commented, but is in a better position to take concrete action now that it is in the process of drawing up the budget for next year.
Chevron wins legal victory
against Ecuadorian
plaintiffs
e US supermajor Chevron scored a legal victory last week, when a Canadian court agreed to dismiss a lawsuit led by plainti s based in Ecuador. Chevron said in a statement that the court had taken this action in response to its motion to dismiss the case, which was based on allegations of environmental damage to rivers and rainforests in Peru and Ecuador. Instead of contesting the motion, the statement said, the plainti s agreed to abandon their claim and pay the oil company’s legal costs.
The plaintiffs secured a $9.5bn judgment against Chevron in an Ecuadorian court in 2011 and initiated legal action in several different countries with the aim of enforcing this claim. e oil company has fought these suits, saying that all of the legal proceedings were groundless, since it had never operated in Ecuador.
To date, all of the plainti s’ e orts have failed, with an international tribunal in The Hague and courts in Argentina, Brazil, Canada and the Netherlands all ruling in favour of Chevron. Meanwhile, the US federal court system is pur- suing a racketeering case against Steven Donz- iger, the attorney who led e orts to collect the sum ordered by the Ecuadorian court in 2011.
MOVES
Mexico’s former finance minister cites gas pipeline dispute as factor in resignation
Carlos Urzua, Mexico’s former nance min- ister, has cited the national power provider CFE’s push to revise the terms of several natural gas pipeline deals as one of the factors that led him to step down from his post in the cabinet of Pres- ident Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
CFE’s demands for the repayment of $899mn worth of excessive charges and for the renego- tiation of existing contracts are misguided and could damage the country’s interests, he told El Proceso in an interview published July 14. “A senior o cial and I went to tell the president a few days ago that what the CFE is doing is not for the bene t of Mexico. We signed a contract and we must comply with it,” he remarked.
Urzua went on to say that he did not support Lopez Obrador’s plans for the construction of the Dos Bocas oil refinery. He indicated that he did not see the project as economically via- ble, saying: “I would not have devoted so much money this year to projects that cannot take o fast.”
Week 28 17•July•2019
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