Page 13 - LatAmOil Week 25

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The specialists’ next task will be to evaluate the great support from the Embassy, co-ordinated
geological characteristics of the area and the with top-level scientists,” he was quoted as say-
conditions contributing to flooding. They will ing in the company statement.
then use the results of this evaluation to draw up The state-owned SOTE system pumps an
a long-term plan for keeping the SOTE system average of 340,165 bpd of oil, linking fields in
intact. the Amazon region to the port of Esmeraldas.
Petroecuador has already begun the process Petroecuador has built two bypass sections to
of cleaning up the spill and rehabilitating the ensure that crude can continue to flow through
territories affected by the ruptures in the SOTE the 498-km pipe.
pipeline. The staffers involved in these efforts The same landslides that affected SOTE in
are receiving technical support from US experts mid-April also put another key oil transport
in the form of training workshops designed by system – the Heavy Crude Pipeline (OCP) – out
the National Spill Control School at Texas A&M of action. OCP is privately owned by Repsol
University Corpus Christi. (Spain), Andes Petroleum (China), Occidental
Pablo Flores, the general manager of Petro- Petroleum (US), Pampa Energy (Argentina) and
ecuador, said that the US assistance would help Perenco (UK/France). When operating at full
ensure the safety of the SOTE system. “It is a capacity, it pumps an average of 173,086 bpd. ™

COLOMBIA
Naturgas sees Colombian gas

output declining more slowly

NATURGAS, a trade association that represents for many years but handed it over to Ecopetrol
Colombia’s natural gas producers, transporters, earlier in 2020.
distributors and traders, has revised its projec- Naturgas also reported that the volume of
tions for gas output between 2020 and 2028. uncontracted gas available for sale in Colombia
Earlier this week, Naturgas said that it still was set to rise by 17.4% in 2020. This indicates
expected the country to see gas yields drop dur- that the country is doing a better job of meeting
ing the 2020-2028 period. It stated, though, that demand for gas, according to Orlando Cabrales,
the decline was likely to be slower than previ- the group’s president. “The production declara-
ously anticipated. tions show that year to year we can increase the
The group noted that Colombian gas oper- availability of natural gas with local sources and
ators’ latest annual declaration of production guarantee energy security,” he said, according
capacity, issued at the end of 2019, projected that to Argus Media. “With the right incentives to
output levels would sink from 1.1bn cubic feet increase production, along with the back-up of
(31.15mn cubic metres) per day as of the start of imports, the country can be reassured of having
2020 to less than 400mn cubic feet (11.33 mcm) the necessary supply to meet demand.”
per day at the end of 2028. The annual output It is worth noting that Colombia’s reserves
figures in this new forecast are 8% higher on are declining along with production. According
average than the figures contained in the decla- to a government report released in April, the
ration of production capacity issued at the end country’s proven gas reserves stood at 3.1 trillion
of 2018, it said. cubic feet (87.78bn cubic metres) as of the end
The change is partly attributable to the fact of 2019, down from 3.8 tcf (107.6 bcm) as of the
that several upstream operators have revised end of 2018. ™
their estimates for production in 2024-2025
upward, Naturgas explained. Lewis Energy
Group (US), Canacol (Canada) and Hocol, a
subsidiary of the national oil company (NOC)
Ecopetrol, are among the companies that have
made changes to this effect, it said. Ecopetrol
is due to bring Orca, a new offshore field, on
stream in 2024 or 2025, it noted, and is also set
to see yields rise at two conventional onshore
fields, Cusiana and Cupiaga.
Even so, it said, the country’s largest gas
deposit, Guajira Basin, will continue to see pro-
duction levels drop over the 2020-2028 period.
Chevron (US) led the development of the field The Orca field will come on stream in 2024-2025 (Image: KPG)

Week 25 25•June•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P13