Page 10 - LatAmOil Week 12 2020

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 As of press time, neither PdVSA nor its Dutch subsidiary had responded publicly to reports of the seizure.
Another dispute
This is not RdK’s first dispute with PdVSA. The Venezuelan NOC began operating the Cura- cao refinery and associated facilities, including the Bullenbay Oil Terminal and a utilities plant known as CRU, under a rental agreement first signed in 1985 and later renewed multiple times. The latest version of the contract expired on December 31, 2019.
RdK has been eager to find another partner, as PdVSA is no longer able to keep the refinery running. Last year, the 350,000 barrels per day (bpd) plant remained more or less idle, partly because the utilities plant was not supplying steam and partly because the Venezuelan NOC has few options for delivering feedstock. (The
BOPEC terminal (Photo: BES Reporter)
US government has exempted RdK from the sanctions imposed on PdVSA, but the exemp- tion applies only to operations and not to Vene- zuelan crude shipments.)
Last September, RdK named the Klesch Group, a privately held international industrial commodities firm, as the winner of a bidding contest for control of the refinery. Earlier this year, it revealed that the parties had signed an asset purchase and sale agreement (APSA) that lays the foundation for a takeover by Klesch. It did not report the value of the deal, but it said that the group would be assuming control of the refinery and all associated facilities. “The agree- ment entails sale of the Curacao oil facilities with the land in long lease,” it noted.
At the time, RdK said it hoped to wrap up the deal in the second quarter of 2020. This, too, may be subject to delay because of the coronavi- rus pandemic. ™
SURINAME
GlobalData comments on Maka Central’s potential for Suriname
GLOBALDATA, a leading data and analytics consultancy, has drawn up an estimate of Suri- name’s potential earnings from Maka Central, a field within the offshore Block 58 where Apache (US) and Total (France) found crude oil and gas condensate earlier this year. The consultancy has cautioned, though, that the project may not be profitable unless certain conditions are met.
According to GlobalData, Maka Central could eventually generate more than $50mn worth of revenue per year for Suriname’s
government. But Gregory Bosunga, an oil and gas analyst at the consultancy, explained that this figure had been calculated on the basis of several assumptions.
One assumption, he said, is that Maka Cen-
tral can be developed in a fashion similar to that
used during the first stage of development at
Liza, a nearby field within the Stabroek block offshore Guyana. Another concerns the field’s recoverable reserves, and yet another relates to
world oil prices, he noted. 
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w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 12 26•March•2020