Page 9 - LatAmOil Week 43 2019

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He also indicated that Brazil was willing to work with OPEC to help stabilise world crude oil prices. Together, he said, the two sides can establish “a great partnership”.
Production and auctions
The South American country has seen oil pro- duction levels rise significantly in recent years, following the discovery of large reserves in the offshore pre-salt zone. It extracted 2.71mn bar- rels per day of crude in 2018 and will see output climb to 2.9mn bpd this year before rising again to 3.22mn bpd in 2020, according to estimates from the International Energy Agency (IEA).
Much of the additional production is antic- ipated to come from fields in the offshore zone, especially the pre-salt areas. Bolsonaro noted during the conference that Brazil was gearing up to offer investors the chance to bid on more pre-salt fields in early November.
The president had said the day before that he was keen to work with Chinese companies seeking a foothold in the pre-salt zone. Speaking during a meeting with China’s President Xi Jin- ping in Beijing on October 29, he asserted that China “must be present” as an investor in Brazil- ian projects – and not just in oil and gas, but also
in other sectors of the
economy. ™
inventory of drilling prospects with the potential return to growth in production, proved reserves, revenues and a potential return to profitability.” Houston American Energy, October 22 2019
DOWNSTREAM
Six expressions of interest
received for new refinery on
Ecuadorian coast
Today the deadline for the delivery of Expres- sions of Interest for the construction of a high-conversion refinery of up to 300,000 bar- rels per day of oil. Five companies (Técnicas Reunidas, Meribano Hidrocarburos, Ingeniería Coliseum, Hoskam Group AG Switzerland and Corefit) and a consortium (Sagecorp), which total six expressions in total, delivered the doc- umentation as part of this process, which began August 28, and which is framed in Executive Decree 861, which authorizes the Ministry of Energy and Non-Renewable Natural Resources to begin the execution of the project for the design, construction and operation of a high conversion refinery in the Costa del Ecuador Region”.
In an estimated period of 30 days, the docu- mentation submitted will be analysed, accord- ing to parameters such as: experience, solvency, legality of funds, among other aspects, in accord- ance with current legal regulations and the con- stitution of Ecuador.
It should be noted that the expressions of interest are not the tender itself, but are part of the process that seeks to endorse companies in a transparent way, according to their economic and technical solvency.
Ecuador has three refineries (Esmeraldas, Shushufindi and La Libertad) that have a total processing capacity of 175,000 bpd. The deci- sion of the national government to build a new high-conversion refinery that produces fuels that meet Euro 5 Standard, responds to the need to cover a part of the demand for fuels that are currently imported to supply the local market.
UPSTREAM
Cairn Energy: Mexico drilling update
Cairn has completed the first well in its drilling programme offshore Mexico. The exploration target of the Alom-1 well on Block 9 was to prove hydrocarbons in stacked Pleistocene targets. The objectives were found to be dry and the well will now be permanently plugged and abandoned.
Data has been collected and preliminary analysis indicates that the well encountered over 500 metres of high-quality water bearing sands across multiple targets. This information will help Cairn calibrate the seismic data and geolog- ical models and is being integrated to improve Cairn’s understanding of the petroleum system offshore Mexico.
The well was drilled to a vertical depth of 2,056m below the sea surface and was termi- nated in the Pleistocene section. The well was drilled about 120 km northwest of Villahermosa.
Alom-1 is Cairn’s first operated explora- tion well in Mexico; the licence was awarded in Round 2.1 in 2017. Cairn holds a 50% working interest with JV partners Citla Energy (35% WI) and ENI (15%WI), pending Comisión Nacional de Hidrocarburos (CNH) approval.
Alom-1 was drilled by the Maersk Developer semi-submersible rig, which will now move to drill Cairn’s second operated well on Block 9, Bitol-1, which is expected to commence opera- tions in November 2019.
Non-operated drilling activity is running in parallel on Blocks 7 and 10; the first ENI oper- ated well, Saasken-1, has commenced operations on Block 10.
Cairn Energy, October 28 2019
Houston American Energy in new Colombian project
Houston American Energy today announced the acquisition, effective October 31, 2019, of a membership interest in Hupecol Meta, which owns the CPO-11 block in the Llanos Basin
NEWS IN BRIEF
in Colombia. The 639,405-gross acre CPO-11 block is comprised of the 69,128-acre Venus Exploration area, operated by Hupecol Operat- ing, and 570,277 acres which was 50% farmed out to Parex Resources by Hupecol. Through its membership interest, Houston American holds a 1% interest in the Venus Exploration area and a 0.5% interest in the remainder of the block.
Hupecol has advised that it plans to com- mence drilling in the Venus Exploration area beginning with the Venus-1 horizontal well in December 2019. Pursuant to the farm-out agree- ment covering the balance of the CPO-11 block, the Daisy-1 vertical well is planned for drilling in November 2019 followed by the Montuno-1 planned for drilling, at no cost to Houston American, in February 2020, with additional wells potentially being drilled during 2020, based on initial drilling results.
CPO-11 covers almost 1,000 square miles with multiple identified leads and prospects expected to support a multi-well drilling pro- gramme. The Venus Exploration area includes an existing productive vertical well that is pres- ently shut-in. Based on analogies to the adja- cent Rubiales field and in order to optimise expected resource recovery and well economics, the Venue-1 well, and future wells in the Venus Exploration area, are presently planned as hori- zontal wells.
Jim Schoonover, CEO of Houston American Energy, stated: “We are excited to resume our operations in Colombia alongside our historic partner, Hupecol, and Parex, a leading operator in Colombia. In addition to participation in a potential large scale drilling and development programme represented by CPO-11, we expect that resumption of our investment alongside Hupecol and investing alongside Parex will offer the potential to further expand our footprint in Colombia.”
The addition of CPO-11 compliments our recent efforts to expand our acreage position which, over the last year, has resulted in the acquisition of positions in two blocks in the Midland sub-basin of the Permian Basin total- ing approximately 6,500 gross acres plus the 639,000-gross acre CPO-11 block. Together, we expect those acquisitions to provide a multi-year
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