Page 15 - LatAmOil Week 23 2020

LatAmOil GUYANA LatAmOil

It is now unable to meet this deadline, and as a from Liza back into the field to boost reservoir
result it may not be able to transfer 1mn barrels pressure. Since Guyana’s government will not
of crude to a tanker for export in July as planned. permit the company to flare the gas that was
According to Adams, ExxonMobil will have destined for that particular well, the company is
to revise its schedule because the compressor having to bring output down, he stated.
cannot be repaired quickly. The US company ExxonMobil and its partners have said they
cannot bring an expert maintenance team to the will rectify the situation by the end of next
field because of travel restrictions related to the month, he added. “We are pushing them to have
coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, so it may it resolved swiftly,” he told Stabroek News. “The
have to take the affected equipment out of the earliest possible time would be what we are look-
country in order to have it fixed, he explained. ing for, but they are looking [at] July. Their target
The director noted that the problem had is no later than July.”
arisen in one of the gas re-injection wells drilled Liza is one of more than a dozen oilfields
at the field by the Liza Destiny, a floating pro- discovered within the Stabroek block, which
duction, storage and off-loading (FPSO) vessel. lies about 193 km offshore Guyana. The block is
Without the compressor, he said, ExxonMobil believed to hold more than 8bn barrels of oil in
cannot use that well to re-inject associated gas recoverable reserves. ™

BRAZIL
ANP: Brazilian oil yields steady

in April despite pandemic

PRODUCTION of crude oil in Brazil rose year such as Mexico, Colombia and Ecuador, which
on year in April, despite the fall in demand and all extract lower-quality grades that have lim-
stoppages related to the coronavirus (COVID- ited markets, Brazil produces high-quality oil
19) crisis, according to the state regulator ANP. that can be sold to a wider range of customers.
Newly released data from ANP show that As Petrobras CEO Roberto Castello Branco
the Latin American country extracted a total has noted, Brazilian crude is better suited for
of 2.958mn barrels per day (bpd) of oil in April. the production of marine fuels that comply
This marked a 13.6% increase on the figure with new International Maritime Organisation
reported for the same month of 2019 but was (IMO) standards.
down by 0.5% on March, the agency said. It Nevertheless, Castello Branco has also said
also reported that production had been halted he is worried about his company’s ability to sell
temporarily at 21 offshore fields and 17 onshore at a profit, even if it can find a home for its oil. ™
fields during the month of April.
State-run oil and gas major Petrobras
accounted for the largest share of output, turn-
ing out 2.7mn barrels of oil equivalent per day
(boepd) in April, according to ANP statistics.
The state agency also noted that the Brazilian
unit of Anglo-Dutch major Royal Dutch Shell
had been the second-largest producer in April,
turning out 482,500 boepd.
Petrobras announced in late March that it
was cutting oil output by 200,000 bpd, owing to
lower demand and declining global oil prices.
However, it was quick to reverse the output cut,
which equated to around 3% of the company’s
total oil production, after it became clear that
Chinese demand for Brazilian crude remained
strong.
In a report published last month, Petrobras
said it was confident that sales to China, its big-
gest crude market, would rise in the near future.
China is sure to buy more oil as it recovers from
the pandemic and factories resume operations,
it asserted.
Unlike other Latin American producers State-owned Petrobras produced 2.7mn boepd in April (Photo: Poder 360)

Week 23 11•June•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P15