Page 9 - LatAmOil Week 16 2020

LatAmOil ECUADOR LatAmOil
SOTE and OCP pipelines (Image: Ecuador Hydrocarbons Ministry)
OCP pipeline resumes partial operations
ECUADOR’S Heavy Crude Pipeline (known locally as OCP) has resumed partial operations after being closed down due to a landslide in the Amazon region earlier this month. The privately operated link was working below full capacity and pumping only 15,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil as of last week, according to local reports.
The OCP system has been offline since April 8, when its operator detected a rupture in the pipeline following the flooding of the Coca River. The flood was caused by landslides on April 7, which also disrupted oil flows through separate state-owned systems known as the Trans-Ecuadorian Oil Pipeline System (SOTE) and the Shushufindi-Quito petroleum product pipeline.
OCP pipeline normally pumps an average of 173,086 bpd, according to government data.
The shutdown of the SOTE and OCP net- works caused Ecuador’s oil output to drop to 68,000 bpd as of April 13. As a result, state-run PetroEcuador was forced to postpone most of its scheduled crude exports until next month. The firm has delayed 10 crude export loadings in April and May, including four heavy sour Napo
cargoes and six medium sour Oriente cargoes, as it works to repair the 360,000 bpd SOTE pipeline.
The SOTE pipeline, which runs for 498 km from the Amazon to the port of Esmeraldas, pumps about 340,165 bpd of oil on average. It saw a drop in pressure following the extreme weather and landslide but is now being repaired. At least 30% of the work is already complete, and the pipeline is expected to be back up and run- ning by the end of April.
Meanwhile, the OCP link is set to be fully repaired by May 4.
Cash-strapped Ecuador produces around 530,000 bpd of crude but has South America’s third-largest oil reserves after Venezuela and Brazil. State-run Petroamazonas, a subsidiary of PetroEcuador, produces approximately one third of the total. PetroEcuador itself exports about 180,000 bpd of oil, including 120,000 bpd of Oriente, the highest quality grade produced in the Amazon region.
Ecuador’s government depends heavily on oil revenues, as crude is the country’s biggest export. ™
GUYANA
Guyana’s marketing contract draws interest from oil traders
THE Guyanese government’s search for a marketing agent for its share of oil output has reportedly drawn interest from several trading companies, according to a Reuters report.
Citing four people familiar with the matter,
the news agency reported that the Anglo-Dutch major Royal Dutch Shell and the Swiss com- modities trader Gunvor were among the compa- nies that have submitted expressions of interest (EoIs) to date.
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