Page 13 - LatAmOil Week 17 2021

LatAmOil ARGENTINA LatAmOil

This change of venue should help eliminate the Argentine Oil & Gas Production Chamber. This
roadblocks that have stymied work on Vaca has raised concerns in Buenos Aires about the
Muerta projects, according to an oil industry country’s ability to secure the gas it needs for
source. the upcoming heating season, the chamber said
Moving the protests to different locations earlier this week.
“should allow traffic to begin to normalise little Argentina’s government has been trying
by little,” the source told Reuters. to shore up output levels within the shale for-
He did not say, though, when Vaca Muerta mation, which is believed to hold more than
developers might see production return to 16bn barrels of shale oil and 308 trillion cubic
normal. Gas output is currently down by about feet (8.722 trillion cubic metres) of shale gas in
10% and 70 drilling crews have been unable to recoverable reserves. Yields sank last year fol-
work, according to a local industry group, the lowing the advent of the pandemic. ™

PERU
Poll results raise concerns about fate of

Peru’s gas and mineral resources

CONCERNS about the future of Peru’s extrac- Earlier this month, for example, he told his
tive industries are mounting ahead of the supporters that the Camisea gas fields ought to
next round of the presidential election, as the be handed over to the state. He described the
top-polling candidate has talked about nation- fields, which provide feedstock for the Peru
alising the country’s natural gas and mineral LNG plant, as a strategic resource that should
deposits. be nationalised so that it could benefit Peruvi-
Peru completed the first round of voting ear- ans rather than foreign investors. The Camisea
lier this month, and none of the contenders won fields are being developed by a consortium that
a majority. As a result, the top two candidates includes US-based Hunt Oil, which is also the
– Keiko Fujimori, the candidate of the conserv- leader of the Peru LNG project. ™
ative Fuerza Popular and the daughter of former
President Alberto Fujimori, and Pedro Castillo,
the candidate of the leftist Peru Libre party – are
proceeding to a run-off election, which is sched-
uled to take place on June 6.
Currently, the leftist candidate is ahead in
the polls – and his opponent has been losing
ground. As of April 27, a survey conducted by
Instituto de Estudios Peruanos showed that
41.5% of Peruvians favoured Castillo, while only
21.5% expressed a preference for Fujimori. This
represented a shift from poll results published
last week, which estimated the market-leaning
conservative’s support at around 30%.
Fujimori is a controversial candidate, as she is
due to stand trial on corruption charges related
to a former run for the presidency. But her poll
slump has raised concerns about Castillo’s plans
for Peru’s economy and fears of state interfer-
ence in markets. These concerns are evident in
reports that investors are selling off Peruvian
securities and bonds, even as the country’s stock
prices and exchange rates drop to new lows.
Investors’ worries are particularly sharp with
respect to crude oil, natural gas and copper
resources. The Peru Libre party has been calling
for nationalisation of the hydrocarbon and min-
ing sectors since 2019. It did so long before the
latest presidential election, but Castillo himself Peru’s leading presidential candidate has called for nationalisation of
has indicated that he favours this approach. the natural gas fields that feed the Peru LNG plant (Image: McDermott)

Week 17 29•April•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P13