Page 10 - LatAmOil Week 13 2020

LatAmOil VENEZUELA LatAmOil
Petropiar is one of Chevron’s two active ventures in Venezuela (Photo: PdVSA)
Chevron JVs slow down in Venezuela
CHEVRON is reportedly slowing the pace of its operations in Venezuela in response to the decline in crude oil prices.
Sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters earlier this week that the US major’s joint ventures with Venezuela’s national oil com- pany (NOC) PdVSA had put their contracting and procurement processes on hold. “All [ser- vice] contracts and procurement processes by Petropiar have been cancelled, and directions have been given to do the same at Petroboscan,” said one of the sources.
As of press time, neither Chevron nor PdVSA had confirmed the report directly. The US com- pany did acknowledge, though, that it had made changes to its business operations in Venezuela.
“Due to low crude oil prices, adjustments to expenditures, including optimising contracts and purchases, have been made at the compa- ny’s non-operated joint ventures in the country,” Chevron spokesman Ray Fohr told Reuters on May 30.
When asked about the status of Chevron’s waiver from US sanctions that restrict trade with and investment in Venezuela, Fohr said
his company was “hopeful” about its chances of being able to continue working in that country. Chevron’s current exemption from the sanc- tions regime is due to expire on April 22, and the administration of US President Donald Trump has indicated that it may not authorise another renewal.
Petropiar and Petroboscan are not the only Venezuelan operators that have cut back on con- tracting and procurement. Venezuela’s govern- ment recently issued a decree suspending public bidding contests that had not yet attracted any offers, saying this move was necessary to rein in the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. One contractor told Reuters that the decree had affected the pace of work at a number of PdV- SA’s oilfields.
Chevron is involved in four joint ventures with PdVSA: Petroboscan, Petroindependencia, Petroindependiente and Petropiar. The com- pany has already suspended activities related to the Petroindependencia and Petroindepen- diente ventures, but Petropiar and Petroboscan are still producing about 180,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil. ™
BRAZIL
Petrobras cuts oil output by 200,000 bpd
BRAZIL’S state-run oil and gas major Petrobras has reduced oil production twice within the last week in response to the coronavirus-induced price crash on world oil markets.
The first cuts were announced last week, when the NOC said in a securities filing that
it would bring crude output down by 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) in the short term – that is,
until the end of March. This move made it the
first large oil operator in Latin America to take drastic measures to try to mitigate the impact of
the coronavirus pandemic. 
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w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 13 02•April•2020