Page 12 - LatAmOil Week 14 2022

LatAmOil ARGENTINA LatAmOil

Tenaris offered to supply the steel pipes for a and Uruguay.
price of $567mn, and its offer represents a major Sean Rooney, president of Shell Argentina,
step towards launching work on the first leg of said he did not believe Argentina would have
the pipeline, IEASA said last week. to curtail its ambitions on this front in light of
The bid is currently being analysed, in the global effort to reduce carbon dioxide emis-
accordance with company policy. However, sions. Despite widespread calls for reducing oil
a source at IEASA told S&P Global Platts last production and exports, he said at the recent
week that IEASA was “working at full speed” conference in Buenos Aires, the window for gas
to ensure that the contract would be awarded to will be “open for many years.”
Tenaris, provided that it met the formal require- In other words, he explained, countries with
ments of the auction. large reserves of gas, which is a cleaner-burning
The pipeline project is a critical component fuel, have more time to capitalise on this oppor-
of Argentina’s plan to increase its gas output tunity. ™
and exports, while also cutting down on costly
imports. The South American country’s gov-
ernment sees Vaca Muerta, one of the world’s
largest shale plays, as a key source of future gas
production.
However, officials in Buenos Aires are also
aware of the need to move gas from the forma-
tion to the places where it is needed – and from
which it can eventually be exported.
Rodolfo Freyre, vice president for gas, power
and business development at Argentina’s Pan
American Energy (PAE), stressed this point at
a recent oil conference in Buenos Aires. “If we
don’t do anything with infrastructure, produc-
tion will hit a ceiling in the next couple of years,”
S&P Global Platts quoted him as saying.
After construction of the first leg of the new
pipeline has been completed, Argentina will
look to push production at Vaca Muerta fields
up to 140mn cubic metres per day, equivalent to
current domestic demand. Once output reaches
this level, the country’s next goal will be to pur-
sue export deals with neighbouring Brazil, Chile Tenaris hopes to supply pipes for the first stage of the new gas link (Image: Telam)

ECUADOR
Petroecuador seeks to expand scope of

2019 crude oil sale agreement with Shell

ECUADOR’S national oil company (NOC) increase total sales volumes. To this end, Argus
Petroecuador has told Shell (UK) that it is ready Media reported on April 4, it has offered to let
to expand the scope of a crude off-take agree- the multi-national take delivery of the Ecuado-
ment signed between the parties in December rean crude at Punta Gorda, the terminus of the
2019. Heavy Crude Pipeline (OCP), which can berth
Under the original agreement, Shell was tankers as large as Suezmax vessels capable of
slated to buy 20.16mn barrels of heavy sour holding up to 1.08mn barrels of oil.
Oriente grade crude over a period of four years By contrast, Shell is currently loading oil at
ending in December 2023. The terms of the deal just one terminal, Balao, which can only accom-
called for the multi-national to take delivery of modate tankers with a capacity of up to 720,000
these volumes in 56 separate cargoes, each con- barrels.
sisting of 560,000 barrels priced at a premium of Argus Media reported that Petroecuador
$0.71 per barrel over Oriente’s spot market price. wanted to sell more crude to Shell under the
As of December 2021, Petroecuador had same conditions but did not say whether the
already sold 4.2mn barrels of oil to Shell under NOC was looking to extend the term of the cur-
this agreement. Now, though, it is aiming to rent deal.

P12 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 14 07•April•2022