Page 11 - LatAmOil Week 34 2021

LatAmOil GUYANA LatAmOil

The US super-major has now made more than Suriname is also attracting strong interest,
20 discoveries at Stabroek, and it now estimates especially now that TotalEnergies and Apache
the block’s reserves at more than 9bn barrels of (US) have announced four discoveries at Block
oil equivalent (boe). 58, a deepwater offshore site, since January 2020.
Meanwhile, exploration is proceeding at sev- ExxonMobil and its partner, Petronas of Malay-
eral more Guyanese blocks, including Kanuku, sia, also made a commercial find at Sloanea, a
Corentyne and Canje. field in Block 52, in the fourth quarter of 2020. ™

BRAZIL
Brazilian gas yields hit record high in July

PRODUCTION of natural gas in Brazil reached sector. Brazilian Mining and Energy Minister
a new high of 139mn cubic metres per day in Bento Albuquerque has said that the law could
July, slightly above the previous record high of unlock BRL40bn ($7.63bn) worth of private
138.7 mcm per day reported in January 2021, investment for the gas sector.
according to newly released statistics from the Until recently, state-owned Petrobras
National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and accounted for around 80% of Brazilian oil and
Biofuels (ANP). gas production. It also controlled and operated
The state oil and gas regulator also reported, almost all of the country’s offshore pipelines and
though, that the increased volume of Brazilian processing plants. But Brazil’s government has
gas sold on the domestic market following flar- announced sweeping plans for loosening Petro-
ing, loss and re-injection had dropped by 4.8% bras’ grip on the domestic gas market with the
month on month in July to reach 56 mcm per aim of bolstering competition.
day. Nevertheless, domestic sales volumes were The liberalisation programme is likely to take
2% higher than in July 2020, when output was years to implement. It will include the unbun-
lower because of cuts stemming from the coro- dling of gas supply from transport and distri-
navirus (COVID-19) pandemic. bution, for the purpose of encouraging more
ANP attributed the m/m decline in sales to upstream investment. ™
greater re-injection of gas into wells in order to
maintain pressure levels. Re-injection volumes
hit 65 mcm per day in July, 8.6% higher than the
June figure and 14.4% higher year on year.
In March, the lower house of Brazil’s Par-
liament approved a new bill aimed at further
opening up the domestic gas market to private
competition. One major change ushered in by
the bill is the replacement of the previous sys-
tem of government concessions by a new regime
of authorisations overseen by ANP. The new
arrangement is designed to reduce bureaucratic
obstacles to pipeline construction.
The long-awaited legislation is predicted to
shatter the monopoly long held by Petrobras, the
national oil company (NOC), over the energy Petrobras used to account for 80% of Brazil’s gas (Photo: Petrobras)

Petrobras sells REMAN plant to Atem

BRAZIL’S national oil company (NOC) Petro- $189.5mn with Atem for REMAN. The Brazil-
bras revealed earlier this week that it had struck ian distributor has already paid $28.4mn of the
an agreement with Atem, a local fuel distributor, purchase price and will turn over the remaining
for the sale of Refinaria Isaac Sabba (REMAN), $161.1mn upon closing the transaction, it noted.
a 46,000 barrel per day (bpd) refinery in Ama- The parties expect to finalise the SPA by the
zonas State. end of this year, subject to adjustments and the
In a statement, Petrobras said it had signed approval of the relevant regulatory agencies, the
a sales and purchase agreement (SPA) worth NOC added.

Week 34 26•August•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P11