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Petroperu to bring Block 192 back on line

PERU’S national oil company (NOC) Petrop- integration of Petroperu.” He pointed out that
eru has signed an agreement that will allow it to the licensing agreement had been signed with
resume crude oil production at Block 192, one the aim of increasing Peru’s oil production and
of the country’s biggest hydrocarbon-bearing also giving its economy a boost.
licence areas. However, the NOC’s plans have sparked con-
Under the licensing agreement, state- cerns over the environmental impact of such
owned Petroperu will assume control of Block production. Petroperu faces opposition from
192, which is located in the Amazon region some of the 25 native Amazonian communities
near Peru’s border with Ecuador. It will invest living in the vicinity of the oilfield. These com-
$638mn in drilling new wells and will have the munities claim that production operations have
right to operate the site for 30 years. contaminated their lands, via constant spills
Block 192 was previously operated by Can- from a pipeline carrying oil from the jungle to a
ada’s Frontera Energy Corp between 2015 and refinery on Peru’s Pacific coast. ™
2020 and yielded 8.3mn barrels of crude during
that period. However, it has been left idle since
then.
Petroperu said it intends to drill 20 produc-
tion wells and one exploration well and hopes to
restart development at an initial level of 10,000
barrels per day (bpd), processing the crude it
extracts at the newly restarted Talara Refinery.
Eventually, Block 192 will yield enough oil to
boost the country’s total oil output by 25%.
The announcement on Block 192 is in line
with Petroperu’s plan to return to upstream pro-
duction. The company divested most of its fields
and focused on its refining and fuel marketing
businesses following a wave of privatisation in
the 1990s.
Peru’s Energy and Mines Minister Oscar
Vera stressed this point, hailing the deal as a
“fundamental step to strengthening the vertical Block 192 is located near Peru’s border with Ecuador (Image: Frontera Energy)

GLOBAL
Energy sector emissions hit high in 2022

GLOBAL energy-related CO2 emissions lower than feared, despite gas-to-coal switching
reached a new record in 2022 of 36.8bn tonnes, in many countries,” the IEA said. “Increased
up 0.9% from the previous year, the Interna- deployment of clean energy technologies such
tional Energy Agency (IEA) reported last week. as renewables, electric vehicles [EVs] and heat
The rise was chiefly the result of soaring gas pumps helped prevent an additional 550mn
prices, which led more countries to ramp up tonnes in CO2 emissions.”
coal use, while oil demand recovered as gov- There were also other factors such as
ernments ended lockdown measures. It came increased cooling and heating demand in
despite increased deployment of new wind, extreme weather, nuclear power plants (NPPs)
solar and other low-carbon technologies. being offline and industrial production curtail-
Despite emissions rising to a new height, the ment, particularly in China and Europe.
IEA said the growth had not been as great as it Emissions from natural gas fell by 1.6%,
had anticipated. Emissions fell 5% in 2020 as a reflecting reduced demand due to high prices.
result of coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdowns, Europe saw a decline of 13.5%, after resorting to
only to rise once more by 6% in 2021. other fuels to cope with the loss of Russian gas.
“In a year marked by energy price shocks, Natural gas-related emissions in the Asia-Pacific
rising inflation and disruptions to traditional region fell by 1.8%, an unprecedented decline for
fuel trade flows, global growth in emissions was the fastest-growing gas market for gas. ™

Week 10 08•March•2023 www. NEWSBASE .com P13