Page 12 - LatAmOil Week 02 2020

LatAmOil C H I L E LatAmOil
Chilean authorities charge ENAP with violating fracking protocols
ENAP, the national oil company (NOC) of Chile, has been accused of failing to comply with the protocols governing a hydraulic fracturing (fracking) programme at the Arenal field.
Chile’s state environmental agency, known by its Spanish acronym SMA, said earlier this week that it had filed six charges against ENAP with respect to its fracking operations at Arenal, which lies within Tierra del Fuego Province. Three of the charges filed are serious enough that they may force the NOC to suspend the project, it said in a statement.
SMA went on to say that the major violations carried a penalty of up to 5,000 tax units each or suspension of the operating agreement. The three minor violations carry tax penalties of up to 1,000 tax units each or a written warning, it stated.
The agency said it had given ENAP 10 busi- ness days to submit its plan for compliance with the relevant regulations and 15 business days to contest the charges.
For its part, the NOC did not deny the alleged violations outright. “At present, we are analys- ing measures to take to ... resolve the aspects brought to light by the SMA in the best way pos- sible,” it said in a separate statement.
ENAP declared that it was taking the matter seriously, especially since Arenal was an “essen- tial” source of natural gas for Tierra del Fuego. It also reiterated its commitment to ensuring gas deliveries to customers in the region.
SMA’s statement did not provide a detailed description of the NOC’s alleged violations. The Chilean press reported, though, that ENAP had been charged with the following breaches: fail- ure to close drilling mud pits at six well sites; fail- ure to close the pits used to collect return fluids, known as flowback, at four well sites; improper use of industrial water; failure to comply with the conditions of the environmental impact assessment (EIA); provision of flowback from unauthorised sources; and failure to provide proper monitoring of water quality.™
Gas fields in southern Chile (Image: PetroMagallanes)
P12
w w w. N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 02 16•January•2020