Page 10 - LatAmOil Week 29

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UPSTREAM
Frontera awarded second
onshore field in Colombian
bidding round
Toronto-listed Frontera Energy revealed last week that it had won rights to another contract area in Colombia. In a press statement, the com- pany said that its bid for VIM-22, a 1,169-square km block in the Lower Magdalena Valley, had been successful.
This development brought the number of blocks awarded to the company in Colombia’s rst bidding round up to two. (Frontera reported on June 27, immediately a er the completion of the auctions, that it had won Llanos-99, a 546-square km block in the Llanos Orientales region.)
VIM-22 lies adjacent to and on the same trend with Guama, another block that the rm is developing in the Lower Magdalena Valley. Frontera said it had already identi ed “multi- ple play types” at the new eld and stated that it hoped to drill its rst exploration well there in 2021. Under its contract, the company is also due to collect 50 square km of 3-D seismic data and drill a total of three exploration wells over the next three years.
President Energy mulls
fracking programme for
more wells in Rio Negro
UK-based President Energy said last week that it was considering more hydraulic fractur- ing (fracking) work in Argentina’s Rio Negro Province.
In light of the success of its first fracking project at PFO-16, a well drilled in 2012 at the Puesto Flores eld, the company is looking into the possibility of applying the same technique to its other assets in Rio Negro. It hopes that fracking will allow it to extract more oil from the Jurassic Precuyo formation.
is was the case with PFO-16, which saw output levels rise from 50 barrels per day to 175 bpd a er the fracturing.
“With these preliminary results, President has now commenced planning for other [frack- ing] candidates in existing wells across the com- pany’s Rio Negro assets where the Precuyo is either at virgin or at a less depleted pressure than was encountered in PFO-16,” President said in a statement.
It added: “In such instances, all other things being equal, the production rates post-frac of such candidates would reasonably be expected
to be signi cantly higher than in a depleted res- ervoirsuchasatPFO-16.”
BHP completes third phase
of deepwater drilling
offshore Trinidad
Australia-based BHP reported last week that it had completed the third phase of its deepwater drilling campaign o shore Trinidad and Tobago.
In an operational review covering the scal year ending on June 30, 2019, the company said it had found natural gas at three locations within the Northern licence area during the second quarter of 2019.
is means that seven of the nine exploration wells drilled at Northern so far contain hydro- carbons, it added.
“ is campaign included three wells – Bélé-1, Tuk-1 and Hi-Hat-1 – which have all been suc- cessfully drilled and encountered gas,” BHP said in its operational review. “ ese three discov- eries in our Northern licences have established additional volumes around the Bongos discov- ery, and evaluations are ongoing. Technical work is underway to assess further exploration targets and commercial options for the Northern Gas play.”
DOWNSTREAM
China’s WEPEC to deliver
threecargoesofgasolineto
Mexico in July
China’s West Pacific Petrochemical Corp. (WEPEC), the operator of a re nery in Dalian, is reportedly on track to deliver three cargoes of gasoline to Mexico in July.
An industry source with direct knowledge of the issue told Reuters last week that WEPEC was set to supply Mexico with three 300,000 barrel
cargoes for a total of 900,000 barrels of gasoline. All of the cargoes will consist of 91-octane gas- oline, which the Dalian re nery produces by blending lower-quality gasoline with naphtha, the source said.
is is not WEPEC’s rst shipment to the Mexican market. e Chinese company began sending gasoline to Mexico in the second half of last year.
Rising production at
Vaca Muerta fields lifts
refinery utilisation rates in
Argentina
e government of Argentina’s Neuquen Prov- ince revealed last week that rising oil production in the Vaca Muerta shale formation was giving a boost to re nery utilisation rates.
In the month of May, the provincial adminis- tration said in a statement, Argentina’s re neries were operating at 78.3% of capacity. is was the highest gure recorded in seven months, it noted.
e uptick stems directly from developments in the Vaca Muerta Basin, it added. Since shale elds are yielding more than enough oil to o - set declines at Argentina’s conventional elds, it explained, the country has been able to increase re nery runs and halt crude oil imports while also boosting oil exports.
YPFgearinguptosellCNG, LNG at its filling stations
Argentina’s national oil company (NOC) YPF intends to start selling natural gas-based fuels at its retail lling stations. e rm wants to use gas from shale elds in the Vaca Muerta Basin to make CNG and LNG that can be sold to motor- ists on advantageous terms, Surtidores reported last week.
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Week 29 24•July•2019