Page 7 - LatAmOil Week 12 2022

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Reuters reported earlier this month that the
EOG’s study concluded that the total volume of
flared gas rose by nearly 50% between 2018 and
2020 and noted that the group’s researchers had
arrived at this conclusion after studying satellite
images of flaring sites across Mexico during the
2018-2020. The images – many of which cov-
ered sites operated by the national oil company
(NOC) Pemex, such as the Cactus gas-process-
ing complex in Reforma, a city that straddles
the border between Chiapas and Tabasco states
– indicate that flaring volumes climbed from 3.9
bcm in 2018 to 5.8 bcm in 2020 it said.
This represents an increase of about 48.7%. It
also makes Mexico one of the world’s 10 largest
gas flarers, Reuters said.
Onshore gas flaring volumes were highest
in Chiapas, Tabasco and Veracruz states, while
offshore flaring sites were concentrated in the
southern Gulf of Mexico, it added. Mexico’s gas flaring rose by more than 10% in 2021 (Photo: IEA)
As of press time, neither Pemex nor Mexico’s
Energy Secretariat (SENER) had commented on separating, processing and handling associated
the matter. gas.
The NOC does not regularly publish data Meanwhile, Reuters pointed out earlier this
on its gas flaring volumes, but it did say in its month that flaring volumes have been rising
most recently published quarterly report that since Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Mexico’s
it had burned away 13% of all associated gas current president, took office in 2018. Lopez
encountered in the process of oil drilling and Obrador has been a champion of Pemex, call-
production. It has acknowledged that this is in ing on the government to eliminate or weaken
excess of the legal limit, which is set at 2% under laws and regulations that prevent the NOC from
Mexican law, and has attributed the overages to dominating the country’s oil and petroleum
the country’s lack of adequate infrastructure for product sectors. ™

GUYANA
ExxonMobil, partners postpone deadline

for choosing next drilling site at Kaieteur

AIM-LISTED Westmount Energy said on
March 22 that ExxonMobil (US) and its part-
ners in the Kaieteur block offshore Guyana had
agreed to push the deadline for selection of a
second exploration drilling target back to Octo-
ber 2, 2023.
Westmount, a minority shareholder in two
non-operating partners in the Kaieteur project,
announced the postponement in a statement. It
said that the investors had agreed to the delay in
order to facilitate ExxonMobil’s continuing geo-
logical and geophysical analysis of the block, as ExxonMobil drilled Tanager-1 (circled in orange) at the southern edge of Kaieteur, just
well as its integration of results from recent and north of the Ranger field within the neighbouring Stabroek block (Image: NVentures)
ongoing deep-play drilling projects at adjacent
blocks. To date, ExxonMobil and its partners have
The US super-major will carry all costs dur- drilled just one exploration well at Kaieteur –
ing the extension period, it noted. Tanager-1. That well encountered 16 metres
The partners are due to begin drilling within of heavy crude oil with a specific gravity of 20
nine months after the selection of their next degrees API in high-quality sandstone reser-
exploration target, it added. voirs at the Maastrichtian level.

Week 12 24•March•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P7