Page 14 - LatAmOil Week 30

LatAmOil VENEZUEL A LatAmOil

Between January and June, Venezuela sent manner,” he said.
14.1mn barrels of crude to Cuba, the news While some Venezuelan politicians have
agency added, citing data from Refinitiv Eikon called for an Iraq-style oil-for-food programme,
and internal documents from Venezuela’s state Vecchio said this solution was not likely to be
oil company PdVSA. feasible as long as Maduro remained in power.
Vecchio went on to say that Maduro’s admin- He may have been referring to the fact that
istration should not be allowed to benefit from the US government, which imposed stricter
the oil and fuel sent to Cuba. Caracas should be sanctions on Venezuela in a bid to unseat the
“getting nothing back” from its shipments to the socialist president in early 2019, is working to
island state, he remarked. restrict trade with PdVSA.
The deliveries to Cuba ought to be given to Earlier this year, the Federal Bureau of
the UN or another multi-lateral group such as Investigation (FBI) said it was probing several
the Red Cross in exchange for goods that might Mexican and European companies allegedly
benefit Venezuelans, he added. “We need to give involved in trading Venezuelan crude. One of
those resources to international organisations to the firms under investigation, Mexico-based
provide humanitarian assistance in an impartial Libre Abordo, declared bankruptcy in June. ™

GUYANA
Hess: Two new oil reservoirs

discovered offshore Guyana

THE US super-major ExxonMobil has report-
edly identified two new oil reservoirs within the
Stabroek block offshore Guyana.
According to US-based Hess, a non-operat-
ing partner in the ExxonMobil-led consortium
set up to explore and develop Stabroek, both of
these reservoirs lie within the Yellowtail section
of the block. “The Stena Carron rig recently
completed appraisal drilling at [the] Yellowtail-2
[well], located 1 mile [1.6 km] south-east of Yel-
lowtail-1,” Hess said during its second-quarter
earnings call. “The well identified two additional
high-quality reservoirs, one adjacent to and the
other below the Yellowtail Field, further demon-
strating the world-class quality of this basin.”
Hess indicated that the consortium was not
ready to comment on the size of the new res-
ervoirs. “This additional resource is currently
being evaluated and will help form the basis for
a potential future development,” it explained.
The Stena Carron is one of several drillships More than 12 oilfields have been discovered at Stabroek (Image: ExxonMobil)
that ExxonMobil and its partners are using to
sink wells at the Stabroek block. Along with Output levels
another vessel, it was forced to suspend opera- Hess also reported during the call that the vol-
tions earlier this year after Guyana’s government ume of oil extracted from the first phase of the
introduced restrictions on travel in response to Liza field had averaged 22,000 barrels per day
the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Both (bpd) in the second quarter of the year. Now
of these ships have now resumed drilling. that the technical difficulties have been resolved,
Meanwhile, Hess noted, another three drill- yields are set to rise to 120,000 bpd before the
ships are working at other fields. The Noble Don end of August, it said.
Taylor is working to complete the Redtail-1 well The company’s comment came several days
that was spudded at a site around 1.25 miles after Mark Bynoe, the director of Guyana’s
(2.012 km) north-west of Yellowtail-1 in July. energy department, informed Argus Media
Meanwhile, the Noble Tom Madden and Noble that Liza had lifted production levels at Liza up
Bob Douglas are drilling wells for the first and to 100,000 bpd, up from the level of 80,000 bpd
second phases of development work at Liza, the reported before the discovery of problems with
first field to begin production. gas-injection equipment. ™

P14 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 30 30•July•2020