Page 12 - LatAmOil Week 02 2022

LatAmOil ARGENTINA LatAmOil

Presidential spokeswoman Gabriel Cerruti low, noting that the country’s oil and gas indus-
defended the government’s decision, express- try had not experienced any incidents during
ing scepticism about protestors’ concerns. She the more than 50 years that it had been working
asserted that the danger of spills was minimal in the offshore zone.
and pointed out that the project could benefit YPF, Equinor and Shell won exploration
Argentina, since domestic demand for crude oil licences for CAN 100, CAN 108, and CAN 114
and natural gas was likely to remain stable over in 2019. Martinez noted earlier this year that the
the next two to three decades. partners hope to find natural gas at the blocks,
“Until we reach that moment when the since commercial discoveries would boost
world has renewable energies or more sustaina- Argentina’s reserves and make the country less
ble energies, we are going to have to carry out a reliant on imports. ™
transition process in which gas will be the main
source of energy. But we are also going to have
to continue consuming oil,” Cerruti commented
in a televised press conference in Buenos Aires.
She also stressed that the government con-
tinued to view climate issues as a priority. The
country is going through a period of transi-
tion, she explained, and the process of making
changes in oil and gas consumption levels may
take between 20 and 30 years to complete.
Argentina’s Energy Secretary Dario Mar-
tinez has spoken similarly. Earlier this month,
he declared the risk of negative environmental
harm from exploration work at the blocks was The blocks are in the North Argentina basin (Image: Equinor)

ECUADOR
Ecuador lifts declaration of force majeure

THE government of Ecuador has lifted a dec- during the shutdown because it did not have
laration of force majeure on exports of crude adequate storage capacity without access to
via the country’s two main pipeline systems, the SOTE.
Trans-Ecuadorian Oil Pipeline System (SOTE) The NOC is the owner of the SOTE system,
and privately-owned Heavy Crude Pipeline which has a throughput capacity of 360,000 bpd.
(OCP). OCP, meanwhile, is owned by a group of private
Energy Minister Juan Carlos Bermeo made companies. It has been handling around 180,000
a formal announcement on Quito’s move to end bpd but has a design capacity of around 450,000
force majeure on January 6, saying that the oil bpd.
industry had taken sufficient action to mitigate The pipeline shutdown also halted oil ship-
the threat of soil erosion that led to the shutdown ments to Ecuador’s refineries. As of January 6,
on December 13. “The ministry’s decision to lift though, deliveries to the 20,000 bpd Shushufindi
the force majeure provides for the restoration of plant and the 110,000 bpd Las Esmeraldas plant
normal operating conditions for transporting had reached normal levels again, and shipments
crude oil in the country, which has allowed us to to the 45,000 bpd Libertad plant were slated to
recover very important production volumes,” he follow suit as of January 9. ™
said in a statement.
Oil exports have resumed, he added.
In the statement, the Energy Ministry noted
that Ecuadorean oil production had climbed
back to 449,000 barrels per day as of January 6,
equivalent to 93% of the 485,000 bpd reported
before the imposition of force majeure last
month. Petroecuador, the national oil company
(NOC) of Ecuador, accounted for about 77% of
the total, or 346,000 bpd, while private operators
made up the remaining 23%, or 103,000 bpd.
This represents a more than 12-fold increase
on the daily low of 36,106 bpd reported on
December 25. According to previous reports,
Petroecuador had to reduce output significantly SOTE and OCP were taken off line for 20 days (Image: Ministry of Hydrocarbons)

P12 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 02 13•January•2022