Page 8 - LatAmOil Week 45 2022

LatAmOil VENEZUEL A LatAmOil

The news agency described this development probably optimising in a better way the conver-
as a sign of the resumption of an oil-for-debt sion units that we have,” he said at a presentation
deal that the US government authorised earlier on Repsol’s second-quarter results.
this year, thereby giving PdVSA a way to clear Three sources familiar with the matter told
some of its obligations to foreign joint venture Reuters in August that PdVSA wanted to alter
partners. the deal. They claimed that the NOC was no
Washington took this step on the under- longer interested in swapping crude oil for debt
standing that these crude shipments to Europe coverage and would prefer to exchange crude oil
would not be subject to penalties under the for petroleum product supplies.
sanctions regime, which aims to discourage As of press time, it was not clear whether the
investment in Venezuela’s oil industry. parties had discussed the possibility of any revi-
This decision gave PdVSA an opportunity sions. ™
to deliver 3.6mn barrels of DCO to Eni in June
and July of this year. Eni swapped most of those
volumes – 3mn barrels, or more than 83% of the
total – with Spain’s Repsol because it could not
process the heavier feedstock at its own refiner-
ies. Repsol, by contrast, was able to handle the
Venezuelan oil because its own complex refiner-
ies in Spain are capable of processing the heavy
Venezuelan feedstock into petroleum products
that meet EU emissions standards.
Repsol’s CEO Josu Jon Imaz hailed this devel-
opment, saying in late July that it had helped his
company gain access to a much-needed new
stream of feedstock. “The return of cargoes from
Venezuela is good news for our refining [busi-
ness] as the quality of those crudes matches per-
fectly with the high complexity of our system ...
We will have a higher capacity to fill our cokers, Eni has equity stakes in several upstream assets in Venezuela (Image: Eni)

GUYANA
Guyana launches first competitive

licensing round for offshore blocks

GUYANA has launched its first-ever compet- “We don’t want it to be too onerous. The qualifi-
itive oil and gas licensing round and is now cations will be more stringent for the ultra-deep
accepting bids for 14 offshore blocks, the coun- areas because only few companies can work
try’s Ministry of Natural Resources said on there,
November 4. The bidding process is likely to take around
The ministry announced the opening of the five months and should be wrapped up by the
auctions in a statement, saying that the govern- end of the first quarter of next year, the ministry
ment had completed the process of identifying has said.
the blocks that were to be included in the bid- The statement also noted that the licence
ding contest. It did not name the blocks covered areas were being offered to investors on terms
by the auctions, but it did say that these would that were more favourable to the Guyanese
cover three offshore ultra-deepwater blocks and government than those extended to Exxon-
11 shallow-water blocks. Mobil (US) and other companies that entered
Both local firms and international oil compa- the country’s offshore zone earlier. If any of
nies (IOCs) will be permitted to submit bids for the blocks now being presented to investors
these assets, provided that they can meet other reach the commercial development stage, these
project requirements and pay the necessary sub- revised terms will serve as guidelines for future
ject bonuses of at least $10mn for shallow-water offshore investments, it said.
sites, or more than $20mn for deepwater sites. Under the new model, the ministry said, roy-
The requirements will be somewhat stricter alty rates have been hiked from 2% to 10%, while
for the ultra-deepwater sites, according to Vick- cost recovery ceilings have been reduced from
ram Bharrat, the Minister of Natural Reources. 75% to 65%.

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 45 09•November•2022