Page 12 - LatAmOil Week 36 2021

LatAmOil PARAGUAY LatAmOil

The licence is now due to expire on September account, there is good reservoir rock present in
12, 2023, the company noted. “If a discovery is Delray [that is] capable of prolific production if
made in the meantime, application can be made charged and an excellent four-way closure with
to convert the relevant area into an exploitation seal, with the main exploration risk being migra-
licence,” it said. tion from the hydrocarbon source,” President
Now that these two conditions have been noted in a separate statement in June.
met, President has eliminated the main bar- The company has been working at Pirity
riers to wrapping up the transaction. It is now since 2012. It carried out an exploration pro-
expected to close the deal by the end of Septem- gramme that involved the collection of more
ber, the statement noted. than 1,000 km of 2-D seismic data and 850
President signed an agreement on the farm- square km of 3-D seismic data from the block
out deal in June of this year but has yet to identify in 2013-2014 and then proceeded to drill two
the buyer of the 50% stake. It has said it plans to exploration wells. These wells served to identify
sell its stake in Pirity to a firm based in North a petroleum system in the northern section of
America and has described the buyer as a “sub- the block and encountered significant shows
stantial” state-owned investor that has set up a of hydrocarbons, but were never brought into
special-purpose vehicle for the purpose of join- commercial production. President then decided
ing the project. However, it has declined to reveal to focus on the Delray complex, which appeared
any further details, saying it intends to maintain to be more prospective than the original target.
confidentiality until the deal is concluded. Peter Levine, the chairman of President,
In June, President said it had agreed transfer indicated in June that his company hoped to
a 50% equity stake in Pirity to its partner, while be able to use oil from the Pirity concession to
continuing to serve as operator of the project. produce refined fuels for Paraguay’s domestic
In exchange for this asset, the North Ameri- market. This will benefit the country, which has
can company will pay President Energy $4mn been importing all of the petroleum products
and assume 60% of the costs of drilling a new it consumes via barge shipments up the River
exploration well that is due to be spudded and Plate, he said. ™
drilled to a depth of 3,750 metres in the first half
of 2022. (The parties have already agreed on the
site where this well is to be drilled.)
The cost of drilling this well is likely to reach
$10-15mn. The shaft will target a set of subsur-
face prospects known as Delray, which is esti-
mated to contain more than 260mn barrels of oil
in mean unrisked resources. President has put
the chances of success at this site at 30%.
The Delray complex is the section of Pirity
that is most similar in geological terms to Pal-
mar Largo, a group of fields about 100 km away
in Argentina. “It has been determined that of
the usual exploration factors to be taken into The Delray prospects at Pirity may hold 260mn barrels of oil (Image: President

ARGENTINA
Neuquen Province raises concerns

about Argentina’s new oil law

ARGENTINA’S oil-producing Neuquen Prov- administration said in a statement last week that
ince is complaining that the Energy Secretariat, it had received a document outlining the bill but
the federal government agency responsible for did not know whether the final version of the
overseeing the hydrocarbon industry, has not legislation was different.
shared an official copy of its much-anticipated Buenos Aires has dismissed such concerns,
oil and gas investment promotion bill. saying it has already made sufficient provisions
Neuquen, along with several other oil- for the provinces, according to a recent report
and gas-producing regions of the country, by local media outlet Mas Energia. The report
is concerned that the new legislation could quoted Ariel Kogan, a member of the team that
damage regional autonomy in areas such as roy- is drafting the bill, as saying that the proposed
alties, according to local reports. The provincial legislation “respects provincial autonomy.”

P12 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 36 09•September•2021