Page 10 - LatAmOil Week 36 2022

LatAmOil BRAZIL LatAmOil

But Rafael Chaves Santos, the NOC’s executive So far, the Brazilian company has focused on
director of institutional relations and sustaina- re-injection as a means of capturing and stor-
bility, told Upstream Online that Petrobras was ing its own carbon emissions. And thus far, it
mulling proposals for providing storage solu- has been able to re-inject 35mn tonnes of CO2
tions to other industrial producers of carbon equivalent back into its offshore fields, keeping
dioxide. reservoir pressure levels up and supporting its
Speaking on the sidelines of the Gastech 2022 own development programmes in the process.
conference in Milan, he described third-party (The figure is on track to rise to at least 40mn
carbon dioxide storage as a possible avenue of CO2e within the next few years.)
diversification for Petrobras. Nevertheless, he However, re-injection is not the only option
stressed that the NOC’s board of directors and for CCS, and sources with knowledge of the
executives would decide whether the business matter told Upstream Online that Petrobras
should develop in this direction. Additionally, would probably be working with other inter-
he declared that Petrobras would not be exiting national oil companies (IOCs), especially joint
the hydrocarbon business in the foreseeable venture partners such as Shell (UK), to develop
future. In the meantime, the company is exam- other methods. These partners can help the
ining its options, he indicated. “It’s a study we are NOC with research and development of carbon
doing right now,” he said. dioxide compression and transport solutions,
Chaves did not reveal all the parameters of the sources said.
the study, but he did state that Petrobras was Upstream Online, for its part, said Petrobras
looking into possible solutions from “a techni- might unveil some of its plans on this front in
cal perspective with a multi-disciplinary group” October, during the Rio Oil & Gas 2022 con-
for using existing and newly established storage ference. The event is scheduled to take place on
sites to sequestrate captured carbon dioxide. October 26-29 in Rio de Janeiro. ™

ARGENTINA
Argentina’s PAE considers establishing

route through Uruguay to send gas to Brazil

PAN American Energy (PAE), Argentina’s
second-largest producer of crude oil and
fourth-largest supplier of natural gas, has
announced plans to start supplying gas to neigh-
bouring Brazil.
Marcos Bulgheroni, the company’s CEO, said
last week that PAE was currently in talks with
partners on the construction of a cross-border
pipeline to Uruguay that could be expanded
to raise supplies of gas to Brazil as well. “We
have a big opportunity to export gas to Brazil,”
he explained at a seminar organised by Clarín
newspaper in Buenos Aires.
Alternatively, he said, Argentina could
export gas to Brazil via Bolivia. This route will
become viable once Buenos Aires completes
the construction of a $3.4bn pipeline from the
Vaca Muerta shale formation, most of which lies
within the Neuquen province, to central Argen-
tina, he said. PAE is considering both Uruguay and Bolivia as transit states (Photo: EPE)
Work on this link, which will expand the
capacity of the country’s gas pipeline system by Bolivian gas production did slump to 43.1 mcm
44mn cubic metres per day, is expected to com- per day in the first half of 2022, down from 47.7
mence this year. mcm per day.
No matter which route is chosen, Brazil Meanwhile, Bolivian gas export volumes
needs Argentinian gas in order to make up have declined by 28% from their peak of 60.8
for the decline in deliveries for Bolivia, where mcm per day in 2014, according to data from the
production has been falling, Bulgheroni said. Bolivian National Institute of Statistics.

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