Page 11 - LatAmOil Week 01 2022

LatAmOil ARGENTINA LatAmOil

The documents outline the partners’ plans to
collect seismic data from the blocks, which are
all located in the North Argentina basin east of
the city of Mar del Plata, without unduly dis-
rupting local marine life and economic activity
such as fishing, he noted.
According to Martinez, YPF aims to work
together with Equinor (Norway) and Shell (UK)
to search for natural gas at the offshore sites.
Commercial discoveries would boost Argenti-
na’s reserves and make the country less reliant
on imports, in line with state policy, he said.
For his part, Pablo Gonzalez, the president of
YPF, stressed that the project had the potential
to help reduce Argentina’s carbon dioxide emis-
sions. The country’s offshore zone may hold as YPF, Equinor and Shell will collect data from the offshore blocks (Image: Equinor)
much gas as the Vaca Muerta shale formation,
and gaining access to these resources would with pristine beaches. Exploration and produc-
facilitate a switch to cleaner-burning fuels, he tion operations could also disrupt the fishing
said. industry, which is a major component of the
Additionally, Gonzalez said, offshore discov- local economy, he added.
eries could give a boost to Argentina’s economy. Martinez, meanwhile, stressed that Argen-
If YPF and its partners find commercial reserves tina had been engaging in offshore exploration
offshore, they may be able to create more than and drilling work for more than 50 years without
20,000 jobs, he stated. any environmental incidents or accidents that
Other observers took a less positive view. For compromised the physical safety of workers.
example, Guillermo Montenegro, the mayor “From the Ministry of Energy and in tune with
of Mar del Plata, expressed concern about the a responsible and committed national govern-
potential risks of offshore exploration. If the ment, we are going to verify that all operations
exploration project leads to offshore drilling in the energy framework are carried out with
and spills, he said, Mar del Plata will be at risk the most demanding international standards of
of losing its reputation as a tourist destination environmental care,” he commented. ™

ECUADOR
Ecuador hopes to see oil

output recover next month

ECUADOR is on track to see oil production
return to normal levels in February following
the restart of the two main pipelines used to
export crude, according to Energy Minister Juan
Carlos Bermeo.
Speaking on December 31, Bermeo reported
that the national oil company (NOC) Petroe-
cuador had already restarted the 360,000 barrel
per day (bpd) Trans-Ecuadorian Oil Pipeline
System (SOTE). The SOTE system was taken
offline for 20 days in December to facilitate the
construction of new bypass lines and prevent it
from being damaged by erosion, he noted. The pipelines were idled for 20 days (Image: Ministry of Hydrocarbons)
Output levels will start rising about seven to
10 days after the pipeline has been restarted, he Pipeline (OCP), a privately owned network
added. He explained the slight delay by noting that has been handling around 180,000 bpd, far
that Petroecuador would need time to evaluate below its design capacity of around 450,000 bpd.
individual wells. Argus Media reported, though, that OCP was
The minister did not comment on the other slated to resume operations later on December
affected oil export system – Heavy Crude 31.

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