Page 12 - LatAmOil Week 41 2021

LatAmOil PERU LatAmOil

A local advocacy group, the Indigenous Asso- to Petroperu’s Iquitos refinery on the Pacific
ciation for Development and Conservation of coast. Late last year, though, the Canadian com-
Bajo Yurimaguas (AIDCBY), declared a strike pany said it had succeeded in opening up a new
on October 6 and said it was ready to continue oil export route via Brazil. The new route uses
blocking oil shipments until Peru’s President barges to move crude down the Amazon river
Pedro Castillo met their demands and redis- to the Brazilian port of Manaus. (It is still not
tributed the proceeds of natural resource devel- as heavily used as ONP, presumably because it
opment projects. enjoys less economy of scale.)
“Not a single drop of oil is going to come out For decades, there has been friction between
of the Amazon until the government takes care oil companies and Peruvian indigenous groups.
of us,” AIDCBY proclaimed in a statement. The country’s judiciary has requested a ban on
This is not the first time that indigenous oil exploration and exploitation in an indige-
groups in Peru’s upper Amazon basin have nous region of the Amazon, in an area where
staged protests to demand better economic and local tribes have long opposed the development
social support. In late September of 2020, for of energy projects on their land. ™
example, a group of about 200 activists blocked
the entrance of the same facility, Pump Station
#5. They did so not long after protesters took
control of the station, which is near the Bretaña
oilfield within Block 95.
Bretaña is the flagship asset of PetroTal,
which is based in Canada. Last year’s protests
spread into the company’s work camp and
resulted in the deaths of several protesters.
They also caused the field to remain offline for
85 days, thereby derailing efforts to bring yields
back up to pre-pandemic levels.
PetroTal and other upstream operators use
ONP to pump their crude from northern Peru The protest centred on ONP’s fifth pumping station (Image: Petroperu)

GLOBAL MARKETS
OPEC+ output up but still short

OIL production among members of the OPEC+ addition of 400,000 bpd of oil to November. In a
group increased by 470,000 barrels per day dur- press release to accompany the announcement,
ing September, according to a survey by S&P OPEC said that the group “reaffirmed the deci-
Global Platts, but output remains more than sion of the 10th OPEC and non-OPEC Min-
500,000 bpd below combined quotas. isterial Meeting on 12 April 2020 and further
The survey showed that production among endorsed in subsequent meetings including the
OPEC members was 27.29mn bpd, 320,000 bpd 19th OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial Meeting
higher than in August with the nine non-OPEC on the 18 July 2021.”
countries having produced 13.44mn bpd, up It added that during the October 4 meeting,
150,000 bpd from a month earlier. This leaves OPEC had “reiterated the critical importance
combined OPEC+ production 570,000 bpd of adhering to full conformity and to the com-
under quota. pensation mechanism taking advantage of the
The largest increases came from Kazakh- extension of the compensation period until the
stan (110,000 bpd), Russia (90,000 bpd), Saudi end of December 2021.”
Arabia (also 90,000 bpd) and Iraq (80,000 bpd); This marks the latest effort to bring in line
however, most OPEC+ members have struggled producers that have failed to comply with output
to increase output following prolonged periods quotas. Russia, Iraq, the UAE, Bahrain, Gabon
of underinvestment, with output well below lev- and South Sudan have all exceeded their quotas
els anticipated. to varying extents in recent months, with the
The largest OPEC underperformer was Nige- two Middle Eastern nations having been reg-
ria, which fell 224,000 bpd short of its quota with ularly guilty of overproduction in recent years.
pipeline damage having an impact on exports, The statement noted that “compensation
while Malaysia was the largest non-OPEC mem- plans should be submitted in accordance with
ber underperformer, with output reportedly the statement of the 15th OPEC and non-OPEC
down owing to difficulties at an offshore facility. Ministerial Meeting”.
The update follows the announcement last The next meeting is scheduled to take place
week that the group would stick with its planned on November 4. ™

P12 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 41 14•October•2021