Page 9 - LatAmOil Week 20 2021

LatAmOil COLOMBIA LatAmOil

However, the agency issued a formal order, on number of setbacks, including the incidents that
the grounds that the incident posed an “immi- led the EPA to order the shutdown.
nent risk to public health” and had caused the Limetree Bay Ventures, a company formed
refinery to violate regulations governing sulphur by EIG Global Energy Partners and ArcLight
dioxide emissions limits. Capital Partners of the US, took control of the
In the order, the EPA instructed Limetree oil-processing plant in 2016. The facility had
Bay Ventures to secure an independent audit of previously been owned by Hovensa, a joint ven-
its operations. It also said it would require the ture set up by Hess, a US-based independent,
company to submit a programme of corrective and Venezuela’s national oil company (NOC)
measures that addressed all problems identified PdVSA. However, Hovensa shut the refinery
by the auditor. down in 2012 and then declared bankruptcy
Michael Regan, the head of the agency, said in 2015 before agreeing to sell it. Since then,
that the shutdown order was necessary to ensure the plant has been used mostly as a storage and
the health and safety of people living and work- transshipment facility. ™
ing near the refinery. “These repeated incidents
at the refinery have been and remain totally
unacceptable,” he was quoted as saying in an
EPA statement. “Today, I have ordered the refin-
ery to immediately pause all operations until we
can be assured that this facility can operate in
accordance with laws that protect public health.
This already overburdened community has
suffered through at least four recent incidents
that have occurred at the facility, and each had
an immediate and significant health impact on
people and their property.”
The Limetree Bay refinery has a design
capacity of 350,000 bpd but has remained idle
for nearly a decade. Its owner has been trying
to bring the plant back online but has suffered a The BW Tatiana LNG carrier will be converted into an FSRU (Image: Invenergy)

COLOMBIA
Mesa says Colombia’s oil production

has dropped below 700,000 bpd

COLOMBIA’S oil production has dropped disruptions have affected business at more than
below the threshold of 700,000 barrels per day 45% of the country’s filling stations, with the
for the first time in more than a decade, Energy affected facilities reporting pump sales down by
Minister Diego Mesa said earlier this week. This about 50% on average.
represents a fall of at least 6% on the figure of The minister is not the only person com-
744,415 bpd posted in March, the latest month menting on the disruption. Over the past week,
for which official data are available, according to several Canadian companies have reported
S&P Global Platts. that the protests are affecting their production.
Speaking to a group in Bogotá, Mesa said GeoPark has said that its output levels are down
that output levels had dropped in recent weeks by about 12,000-15,000 barrels of oil equivalent
as a result of widespread political protests. With per day, or about 40-45% below the first-quar-
demonstrators erecting roadblocks and dis- ter average of 31,455 boepd, while Gran Tierra
rupting traffic, upstream operators are having a estimates that its yields have dropped by 5,250
hard time bringing equipment to their oilfields, bpd, marking an 18% drop on the figure of
delivering crude to refineries and transporting 29,600 bpd posted in mid-April. Likewise, Parex
petroleum products to market, he explained. Resources has seen production sink from 41,100
Mesa did not say exactly how much crude boepd in the first half of April to about 31,000
oil Colombia was currently extracting. How- boepd as of May 17, a fall of nearly 25%.
ever, he did report that the country had sus- By contrast, Frontera Energy, another Cana-
tained an aggregate loss of 560,000 barrels of oil dian operator, reported on May 18 that its out-
production since the current wave of protests put levels had not been materially affected by the
began in late April. Additionally, he noted, the unrest.

Week 20 20•May•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P9