Page 13 - LatAmOil Week 24

LatAmOil COLOMBIA LatAmOil

Sabotage takes 31 wells

off line at Colombian oilfield

COLOMBIA’S national oil company (NOC) Hector Manosalva Rojas, the CEO of Cenit,
Ecopetrol has suspended operations at more spoke out strongly against these incidents,
than 30 wells at the La Cira-Infantas oilfield, saying: “We emphatically reject these attacks
following a series of attacks by protesters over against the country’s pipelines, which are creat-
the weekend. ing negative social, economic and environmen-
On June 14, Ecopetrol said in a statement tal impacts, even more so during the crisis the
that demonstrators had sabotaged 31 wells at La country is facing due to [coronavirus] COVID-
Cira-Infantas, which usually produces around 19, which makes it more difficult to perform
35,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil. These attacks repairs with our technical personnel on site.”
led to spills and halted development operations Cenit also issued a statement condemning
at the affected wells, it reported. the sabotage as “illegal actions that jeopardise
Ecopetrol noted in its statement that demon- the integrity of the population, cause serious
strators had begun sabotaging the wells several consequences [for] the environment and affect
days after they mounted a blockade of the field. the activities of the community and the oil
It did not offer any insight as to why the protest industry.” ™
had broken out, but it did say that it was open
to discussing the blockade leaders’ requests in
co-operation with the attorney general’s office
and the municipal administration.
According to Reuters, Ecopetrol and other
producers working in Colombia frequently
draw criticism from residents of communities
near the oilfields. Members of those communi-
ties often demand that operators hire more local
workers or invest in local infrastructure such as
roads and schools, and some of them engage
in sabotage if their conditions are not met, the
news agency said.
This sabotage does not just affect upstream
production sites. Ecopetrol’s subsidiary Cenit
said recently that there had been at least
10 attacks on two of its oil pipelines, Caño
Limón-Coveñas and Bicentenario, since the
beginning of May. La Cira-Infantas oilfield (Image: Occidental Petroleum)

GUYANA
Guyana receives $35mn for second cargo

GUYANA has received $35mn for its second The second cargo fetched less money because
oil lifting of the year, which consisted of 1mn oil is trading at a much lower level than it did in
barrels of crude. This sum was significantly less February. Brent crude futures closed at $39.72
than the $55mn the country received for its first per barrel on June 15, down from about $57 per
export cargo, which went to market in February. barrel as of mid-February.
“The Natural Resource Fund was yesterday Guyana started to sell its share of crude from
credited with $35,063,582.06. This represents the Liza offshore oilfield last year via open-mar-
payment by Shell Western Supply and Trading ket tenders. It pre-sold its first three cargoes to a
Limited for Guyana’s second [lifting],” the Min- subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell, and the first of
istry of Finance said in a statement posted on those went to market in February.
its website. The total holdings of the country’s Liza is Guyana’s first producing field. It is part
Natural Resources Fund as of June 11, 2020 were of the Stabroek block, which is operated by Exx-
$94,921,803.00, the ministry added. onMobil (US).

Week 24 18•June•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P13