Page 8 - LatAmOil Week 06 2021

LatAmOil COLOMBIA LatAmOil

The parties’ next steps will be to carry out due
diligence and to fix the terms of the transaction,
he said in the letter, a copy of which was pro-
vided to the press on February 6.
Carasquilla did not disclose the terms of the
non-binding offer that the NOC has already
submitted. He did state, though, that the govern-
ment would reserve the right to adjust the price
of the stake in ISA in accordance with its own
valuation of the asset and would give Ecopetrol
till the end of June to improve its original bid.
Felipe Bayon, the president of the state-run
oil and gas operator, has estimated the value of
the stake at $3.5-4.0bn. He has also stated that
Ecopetrol might be able to wrap up the acquisi- Ecopetrol is looking to buy a 51.4% equity stake in ISA (Image: Colprensa)
tion within as little as six months. (Additionally,
he has said that the NOC is interested in buy- and the proceeds of new stock and bond issues.
ing the stake in order to support its own shift to It also indicated that it was ready to divest some
renewable energy production.) non-strategic assets – including an 8% portion
According to a report from Bloomberg, of the government’s 88.5% stake in the NOC – to
Bogotá intends to execute the transaction as drum up extra funds. None of these measures
a direct contract, rather than calling a public will affect Ecopetrol’s status as a majority state-
tender for the stake, since Ecopetrol and ISA owned company, and the government will retain
are both controlled by the state. This is likely a stake of at least 80%, it noted.
to reduce the amount of time needed to final- Likewise, the filing added, the proposed
ise the deal, since competitive bidding can be takeover will not eliminate the government’s lev-
time-consuming. erage over the TSO. “The Republic of Colombia
In a recent securities filing, Ecopetrol said it would remain as the ultimate beneficiary of ISA
intended to finance the acquisition of the ISA and maintains ultimate control of the shares,” it
stake through a combination of cash on hand stated. ™

GUYANA
ExxonMobil says gas leak was discovered

when Liza-1 production was above peak

EXXONMOBIL (US), the operator of the
Stabroek block offshore Guyana, has revealed
that production rates at the Liza-1 oilfield were
running about 8.33% above the anticipated peak
of 120,000 barrels per day (bpd) when equip-
ment problems forced it to resume associated
gas flaring.
According to Alistair Routledge, the pres-
ident of ExxonMobil Guyana, flaring began
anew after a leak was discovered in the FPSO’s
stage-3 flash gas compressor (FGC) on the night
of January 27 during a round of optimisation
testing. At that time, he said during a virtual
press briefing, the FPSO was extracting some
130,000 bpd of crude. The Liza Destiny FPSO has been deployed at Liza-1 (Photo: ShipSpotting.com)
Routledge denied any connection between
the failure of the FGC and production rates, 14 mmcf (396,500 cubic metres) per day.
saying that the leak did not occur because pro- Guyana’s government has instructed Exx-
duction rates were high. He also noted that the onMobil to replace the faulty equipment and
FPSO was currently burning off some 16mn bring gas flaring back down as soon as possible.
cubic feet (453,100 cubic metres) per day of However, the US super-major has indicated that
associated gas, higher than the official limit of it only expects to resolve the matter in April.

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 06 11•February•2021