Page 9 - LatAmOil Week 39 2022
P. 9

LatAmOil                                       COLOMBIA                                            LatAmOil



                         Ecopetrol set up an office with four employees
                         in Singapore earlier this year for the purpose
                         of expanding its business in Asia. The team has
                         been tasked with promoting trade in Castilla
                         Blend, a heavy sour crude produced in Colom-
                         bia, and with examining opportunities in car-
                         bon capture and storage (CCS), hydrogen and
                         renewable energy.
                           The fate of Colombia’s oil and gas sector has
                         been in doubt in recent years. Ecopetrol has gen-
                         erally not been discovering new reserves quickly
                         enough to compensate for production declines
                         at current rates, and the country’s leftist Presi-
                         dent Gustavo Petro has pledged to halt all new
                         exploration. (He has also expressed opposition
                         to plans for developing unconventional hydro-
                         carbon reserves through the use of a drilling
                         technique known as hydraulic fracturing, or
                         fracking.)                             Bayon (C) at an event with Petro (L) in August (Photo: Twitter/@ECOPETROL_SA)
                           Nevertheless, Bayon told Reuters that the
                         NOC’s proven reserves were now large enough   steps to improve its position.
                         to sustain production for the equivalent of eight   “We are drilling 600 new oil wells this year
                         years at current rates, up from the previous lev-  ... Oil production is going up, and we want to
                         els of seven and a half years.       ensure that it continues to grow,” the Ecopetrol
                           Additionally, he said, Ecopetrol is taking   head commented. ™




                                                     VENEZUEL A
       Report: Swiss trader now handling




       majority of Venezuelan petcoke exports






                         GENEVA-BASED Maroil Trading has assumed
                         responsibility for the majority of Venezuela’s
                         petroleum coke exports, according to docu-
                         ments and sources close to the matter cited by
                         Reuters.
                           This development is a boon for buyers of
                         Venezuelan petcoke, as it makes them less vul-
                         nerable to US sanctions designed to discourage
                         trade with or investment in Venezuela’s oil and
                         gas sector.
                           Reuters reported that Maroil Trading’s influ-
                         ence over the Venezuelan petcoke trade had
                         been rising ever since the company signed a
                         commercial pact with Venezuela’s national oil
                         company (NOC) PdVSA six years ago. As a
                         result, the Swiss company is now in the position   Petcoke can serve as an affordable alternative to coal (Photo: Satchidanand)
                         of facilitating 100% of the petcoke shipments
                         departing from PdVSA’s Jose terminal on Vene-  been handling all of the Jose terminal’s out-
                         zuela’s eastern coast.               bound petcoke cargos. As a result, PdVSA is now
                           Maroil has played a pivotal role in bypassing   able to focus on exporting small shipments of
                         the US sanctions on Venezuela’s oil sector, as it   crude oil from its Cardon refinery, Reuters said,
                         handles exports of petcoke, a byproduct of the   citing shipping documents and two anonymous
                         upgrading and refining of crude oil. Petcoke is   sources.
                         in high demand in the construction sector and   According to one person acting as an agent
                         cement manufacturing, where it serves as a sub-  for Venezuelan petcoke buyers, Maroil has
                         stitute for coal.                    proved to be more effective at moving the prod-
                           Since at least August of this year, Maroil has   uct out of Jose than PdVSA had been previously.



       Week 39   28•September•2022              www. NEWSBASE .com                                              P9
   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14