Page 6 - LatAmOil Week 44 2019
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ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA
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“The shares to be sold would be deposited within a bank or other financial institution, and caps would be placed on the amount [that] any singlelivingpersoncanpurchase.”
It added: “[This] approach would allow mul- tiple owners of the WIOC shares to be sold, rather than permit a single purchaser to gobble up all the shares that will be offered for sale.”
The proceeds of the sale will be deposited in Antigua and Barbuda’s National Asset Man- agement Co. (NAMCO). The sovereign wealth fund will then be able to use the funds to support other projects and companies.
The WIOC has been in business since 1961.
It came under state control in 1976, but the gov- ernment sold a 75% stake in the company to Bermuda-registered National Petroleum Ltd (NPL)in1980.Thenin2015,itpaidNPL$30mn for 51% of the asset.
The remaining 49% is divided between PdVSA, Venezuela’s national oil company (NOC), with 25%, and a Chinese investor, with 24%.
In its statement, the government described the WIOC as “a very profitable business that yields a profit each year.” The company’s storage facilities are capable of holding 322,000 barrels of refined petroleum products.
ECUADOR
Ecuador reportedly postpones next licensing round in the wake of protests
THE protests that broke out in Ecuador last month have already led the government to can- cel plans for hiking gasoline and diesel prices. Now they are having a ripple effect, in that efforts to address the issues raised during the fuel pro- tests appear to have forced the postponement of the country’s next licensing round.
Ecuador’s government had been due to auc- tion off exploration contracts for at least six Int- racampos II blocks in the north-eastern part of the country sometime in November.
Bloomberg reported earlier this month, though, that Quito had put the bidding round on hold, without saying when it might move for- ward on this front.
As of press time, Ecuadorean officials had not yet commented on the matter. But Ecuador’s for- mer oil minister, Fernando Santos, who is now working as an industry analyst, told Bloomberg that there had indeed been a delay. He also said the government did not have any alternative to postponing the auctions.
A change in schedule is necessary, Santos argued, partly because Quito is focusing on
negotiations with indigenous groups that are sceptical about oil and gas development and partly because investors are concerned about the damage inflicted on oil industry infrastructure during the recent protests. He said, though, that he hoped these discussions would be fruitful and would help prevent additional disruptions to production.
And in the meantime, he remarked, “for- eign investment is dead.” Indeed, he said, inter- national oil companies (IOCs) may not show much interest in Ecuador’s resources until 2021, when President Lenin Moreno’s term in office is due to expire.
Prior to last month’s demonstrations, Ecua- dor was producing nearly 550,000 barrels per day of crude and exporting about 360,000 bpd, or more than 65% of the total, via the Trans-Ec- uadorian Oil Pipeline System (SOTE). It had to declare force majeure, though, after protesters damaged 101 wells at 20 different fields and sabotaged other crucial oil infrastructure. The unrest reportedly cost the country $130mn in repair charges and lost revenues.
Ecuador’s SOTE network handles about 360,000 bpd of oil (Photo: SciencePhotoLibrary)
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Week 44 07•November•2019
