Page 9 - LatAmOil Week 04 2020

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Lima has sought to give these groups more recognition over the past few years. In 2011, it introduced the so-called prior consultation law, which gives indigenous groups the right to have a say in official decisions that could affect the land on which their communities live.
Crude production in Peru hit its highest level in five years last November, according to statis- tics from the Peruvian Oil and Gas Association SPH. The SPH said that oil production reached
63,738 barrels per day (bpd) that month, 31% higher than in the same month of 2018. The government is currently targeting production of 100,000 bpd.
Although Peru has significant proven oil and gas reserves, both in the north-west and in the Amazon, about $5bn worth of fuel is imported into the country. Officials in Lima are therefore keen to make the most of domestic oil reserves.™
VENEZUELA
PdVSA’s last two operational refineries are reportedly off line
PdVSA, Venezuela’s national oil company (NOC), has reportedly suspended operations at the country’s largest oil refinery – the Amuay plant, which has a capacity of 645,000 barrels per day (bpd).
The company shut the facility’s five crude distillation units (CDUs) down on January 27, according to technical documents seen by S&P Global Platts. It reportedly did so because the plant did not have enough feedstock to process and because of equipment failures.
The Amuay facility was one of Venezuela’s last two operational refineries. The other oper- ational plant is the 310,000 bpd Cardon plant, which taken off line on January 25 for mainte- nance work on its first CDU.
Both Amuay and Cardon are part of a large oil-processing complex known as the Paraguana Refining Centre (known by its Spanish acro- nym CRP). The complex has been operating far below its design capacity of nearly 1mn bpd for some time, and some of its secondary processing units have been closed down for more than six years.
PdVSA has not said when it might resume operations at either facility. A company employee who spoke on condition of anonymity told Platts that Cardon would probably remain idle for the next few weeks, pending the com- pletion of repairs to the distillation unit. He also said that the Amuay plant might be able to resume processing within two or three days.
Venezuela is home to four oil refineries. PdVSA took the other two plants – Puerto La Cruz and El Palito, with throughput capacities of 197,000 bpd and 140,000 bpd respectively – off line some time ago because it could not ensure reliable supplies of electricity or feedstock and or provide adequate repair and maintenance service for equipment.
The NOC’s ability to proceed with regular business operations has diminished signifi- cantly over the last year. One of the main factors
driving the deterioration is the stricter US sanc- tions regime introduced in early 2019. The sanc- tions severely restricts investment in Venezuela’s oil and gas and discourage co-operation with PdVSA. Only a few US-based companies – the oil major Chevron and several high-profile ser- vice providers – have continued to operate in the South American country, under temporary waivers granted by the Treasury Department.
For its part, PdVSA has been unable to make interest payments to its bondholders, since the sanctions regime has cut off its access to many banks and other parts of the international finan- cial system. In an advisory notice published by a Venezuelan newspaper last week, the company said its outstanding obligations to bondholders had reached $25.2bn as of December 31, 2019, up from the year-ago figure of $24.7bn.
In the same notice, the NOC said it was car- rying $34.5bn worth of debts as of December 31, 2019. This marks a slight decline of around 0.1% on the figure posted at the end of 2018.™
Cardon refinery, part of the Paraguana Refining Centre (Photo: PdVSA)
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