Page 10 - LatAmOil Week 47 2021

LatAmOil VENEZUEL A LatAmOil

US government extends Chevron’s

Venezuela licence until June 1

THE US Treasury Department has given Chev- sets of additional limits in 2019 and 2020. Most
ron and several other US-based companies of those provisions have remained in place,
more time to wind down their operations in despite Biden’s antipathy to many of Trump’s
Venezuela. policy initiatives.
Chevron and the oilfield service providers The sanctions regime has had a significant
Baker Hughes, Halliburton, Schlumberger and impact on Venezuela’s oil sector. It has cut off
Weatherford International have all continued many of the South American state’s options
to work in Venezuela despite the imposition of for selling oil and refined petroleum products
sanctions on the South American country’s oil on the world market, and it has prevented the
industry. But they are doing so under special national oil company (NOC) PdVSA from
licences granted by the Treasury Department obtaining all the equipment and parts it needs to
that limit their activities to basic functions such keep its production, transportation and refining
as preserving assets, safeguarding employees facilities in good repair.
and reimbursing contractors. As a result, Venezuelan crude production has
Their current licences are due to expire on plunged, fuel shortages are common across the
December 1. However, the department said on country and the government’s oil revenues have
November 24 that it was pushing the expiration plummeted. ™
date of the documents back to June 1, 2022.
The US government’s decision to extend
these exemptions from the sanctions will surely
come as a relief to the companies involved. All
five are keen to maintain a foothold in Venezuela
while they wait for sanctions to end, and they
now have another six months to hold fast.
However, the extension may come as some-
thing of a disappointment to the Venezuelan
government and to potential investors, which
have been hoping that the administration of
US President Joe Biden would be willing to lift
or scale back the sanctions regime. Biden’s pre-
decessor Donald Trump made his first move to
extend existing trade restrictions to cover the oil
industry in early 2019 and then imposed several Petropiar is Chevron’s joint venture with PdVSA (Photo: PdVSA)

GUYANA
Tullow says Beebei-Potaro well will be

spudded at Kanuku block in mid-2022

REPSOL (Spain) aims to drill its next explora- the Cretaceous layer, where ExxonMobil has
tion well at the Kanuku block offshore Guyana made most of its discoveries at the neighbour-
in mid-2022, according to Tullow Oil (UK/Ire- ing Stabroek block.
land), a non-operating partner in the project. The Beebei-Potaro section of Kanuku may
Tullow announced Repsol’s plans in its lat- contain as much as 200mn barrels of oil equiva-
est interim report, saying that the partners lent (boe), Tullow added.
intended to spud the well next summer in the The company did not say whether the part-
Beebei-Potaro section of the block. It also stated ners had lined up a drillship of a rig for the Bee-
that the primary targets of the well would be in bei-Potaro well.

P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 47 25•November•2021