Page 8 - LatAmOil Week 39 2021

LatAmOil VENEZUEL A LatAmOil

The US government has imposed sweeping
sanctions on Venezuela. As a result, bond
restructuring of any kind has not been possible.
The delinquent bonds for the Refidomsa
swap are priced at $80bn with interest, making
them one of the largest volumes of defaulted
obligations globally. They are the first substantial
evidence that Maduro’s government is prepared
to start moving the delinquent bonds, market
participants told Bloomberg.
The views of investors have “changed for
the better on the government’s willingness to
seriously negotiate with the opposition leaders
and to take the necessary steps to give the Biden
administration reasons to loosen sanctions,” PdVSA completed the Refidomsa swap in August (Photo: Refidomsa)
Dean Tyler, head of global markets at Lon-
don-based BancTrust, said to the news agency. 49% in the facility, which was valued at around
“The Refidomsa swap helped to stimulate $88mn. The transaction reportedly involved
demand, as it underscored Venezuela’s willing- PdVSA and the governments of Venezuela
ness to engage,” he added. and the Dominican Republic, as well as a fam-
The deal for the Refidomsa refinery, located ily-based Dominican investment concern that
in the Dominican Republic, was completed arranged to turn the stake over to the govern-
in August. It gave investors a stake of around ment. ™

GUYANA
Frontera sees Kawa-1 exploration

well completed in December

CANADA’S Frontera Energy has said it expects
Kawa-1, an exploration well at the Corentyne
block offshore Guyana, to reach its planned
total depth of 6,685 metres in the first half of
December.
In a statement dated September 24, Frontera
reported that work on the well was moving for-
ward on schedule.
Since the well was spudded on August 23,
downhole drilling operations have remained on
target and have proceeded “without any signifi-
cant incident,” it said.
As of September 23, it added, the well had
already reached its planned casing point at
a total depth of 9,900 feet (3,017.5 metres).
It noted that field crews had already run the
36-inch (914-mm) conductor, as well as the
22-inch (558.8-mm) and 18-inch (457.2-mm)
casing strings, and have also succeeded in run-
ning and cementing an 18-inch casing string,
the third of five planned for the well. As such, Kawa-1 is in the northern section of the Corentyne block (Image: Frontera Energy)
it said, the crews have moved on to drilling the
next section of the hole beyond the last casing in on depth,” it commented in the statement.
point. “The joint venture is looking forward to drilling
Frontera did not reveal whether it had and evaluating the upcoming well sections and
encountered any hydrocarbon shows so far in maintaining safe and efficient operations.”
Kawa-1. “The well results thus far are consist- Kawa-1 is being drilled at a site that is around
ent with our pre-drill geological and geophys- 200 km from the shore and in 355-metre-deep
ical expectations, and formations are coming water.

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 39 30•September•2021