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Ecuador eyes new $1.4bn

oil-backed Chinese loan

POLICY ECUADOR is hoping to sign a new US$1.4bn PetroEcuador, as the previous agreements
oil-backed loan agreement with China next with China were.
month, according to the South American coun- He went on to say that the credit would be
try’s Minister of Energy and Non-Renewable secured by PetroEcuador’s long-term crude
Natural Resources René Ortiz. sales, but at formula-based market prices. This
The sovereign credit deal is designed to pricing regime will encourage competition
restructure existing loans and encourage com- among Chinese trading companies such as Pet-
petition among Chinese oil trading companies, roChina and Unipec, as well as third parties such
Ortiz told local news agencies last week. China as Thailand’s state-run PTT, which may also be
Development Bank (CDB) will lead the syndi- involved in the restructuring, he said.
cate that is putting together the loan, which will China is Ecuador’s largest creditor. The latter
also be backed by a German financial institution, received a total of $9.9bn from Chinese lenders
he said. between 2005 and 2013, according to the Chi-
The new Chinese loan agreement, which has na-Latin America Finance Database, a joint
been under negotiation for months, is expected effort between the Inter-American Dialogue and
to complement Ecuador’s recent $17bn bond Boston University. It has also committed to sell-
debt structuring, as well as the $6.5bn loan pack- ing millions of barrels of oil to state-run Chinese
age approved earlier this month by the Interna- firms since the early 2000s.
tional Monetary Fund (IMF). Meanwhile, Ecuador has also been the bene-
It will also restructure the South Ameri- ficiary of oil-for-loan agreements with PTT since
can state’s outstanding obligation to deliver 2009. However, these deals have been smaller in
nearly 200mn barrels of crude oil supply in scale. than the deals with China.
line with existing credit agreements, accord- Along with financing deals, China has
ing to Ortiz. The minister also stressed, snapped up assets across Latin America in recent
though, that the loan would be a sovereign years. State-run PetroChina now has operations
instrument signed by Ecuador’s government in Peru, Colombia, Cuba, Brazil, Costa Rica and
and not by the state-owned oil and gas firm Venezuela, as well as Ecuador.™

OCEANIA

State Gas gears up for new

drilling at CBM project

PROJECTS & AUSTRALIAN independent State Gas has hired The company aims to begin drilling before
COMPANIES a drilling rig to sink up to four wells at its wholly the end of the year, although it has said weather
owned Reid’s Dome coal-bed methane (CBM) conditions will be a determining factor. Queens-
project in Queensland. land’s wet season runs from November to April,
The developer said last week that it had signed bringing heavy rainfall.
a letter of intent (LoI) with Silver City Drilling State Gas added that it was in talks with Silver
for the company’s Rig 25, which will drill four City over using an additional rig for the proposed
step-out wells centred on the Nyanda-4 well, Rougemont-1 well in its new Rolleston-West (ATP
which is located on PL 231. The wells will be pro- 2062) project, along with production monitoring
duction tested as part of State Gas’ second phase wells at Reid’s Dome. It said: “Using two rigs for the
Reid’s Dome’s exploration and appraisal. Rig 25 combined programme will enable more rapid drill-
drilled the project’s Primero West-1, Nyanda-4 ing and production testing, and will also optimise
and Serocold-1 wells. rig capability for the proposed wells.”
State Gas said the wells would provide addi- State Gas wholly owns the 1,414-square
tional data to “secure a significant certified km Rolleston-West permit, which is adjacent
reserves booking and enable field development to Reid’s Dome. The developer said it was well
planning and infrastructure design for commer- funded ahead of drilling and production test-
cialisation of the Nyanda area”. ing at both Reid’s Dome and the Rolleston

P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 41 15•October•2020