Page 14 - LatAmOil Week 23 2020

LatAmOil ECUADOR LatAmOil

The ministry announced the closure in a state- crude production averaged 182,353 bpd in the
ment last week. It did so after the national oil month of April, down from 521,927 bpd in the
company (NOC) Petroecuador reported that first three months of the year, marking a drop of
SOTE had been shut down as a preventative approximately 65%.
measure. The production stoppages represent a major
According to the ministry’s statement, crude blow for Ecuador’s government, which depends
exports will not be affected by the force majeure heavily on oil revenues. Petroecuador has been
declaration, as there are sufficient inventories exporting an average of 180,000 bpd of oil.
at the Balao terminal. In the meantime, said About 120,000 bpd of the total is Oriente crude,
Energy Minister Rene Ortiz, Petroecuador is the highest-quality grade of oil produced in the
expected to complete construction of a bypass country’s Amazon region. ™
pipeline that will enable pumping to resume in
the near future.
State-run SOTE is the operator of a 498-km
pipeline that pumps an average of 340,165 bar-
rels per day (bpd) of oil from the Amazon to the
port of Esmeraldas. The system also went offline
in mid-April, following the flooding of the Coca
River. That incident also forced the closure of the
Heavy Crude Pipeline (OCP) network, another
key oil transportation route.
Ecuador’s production levels have taken a hit
in recent months, owing to pipeline damage and
the major slide in global fuel demand on the
back of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
The national oil regulator ARCH has said that SOTE and OCP oil pipelines (Image: Ecuador Hydrocarbons Ministry)

GUYANA
Technical problems force

output rates down at Liza field

GUYANA may not be able to load its third cargo the South American state’s Environmental Pro-
of crude oil for export on schedule next month, tection Agency (EPA), reported on June 7 that
owing to setbacks at Liza, the country’s only yields had dropped from 80,000 barrels per day
operating field. to 25,000-30,000 bpd as a result of the difficulty.
Production rates at Liza began dropping over The US super-major ExxonMobil, which is
the weekend as a result of technical problems leading development operations at Liza, had
with gas compression equipment, according to hoped to bring production up to the projected
press reports. Vincent Adams, the director of peak level of 120,000 bpd by mid-June.

More than a dozen oilfields have been discovered within the Stabroek block (Image: Hess)

P14 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 23 11•June•2020