Perupetro SA, Peru's petroleum regulatory agency, has voided the international tender it called in December 1996 for exploration and development licenses for offshore Blocks Z-1 and Z-3 and instead will hold a private auction.
Perupetro's directors were reportedly dissatisfied with royalties offered by the four companies that presented bids on Apr. 21. Under the tender's terms, bidders offering the highest weighted-average royalties for gas, condensate, and crude oil would win the contracts. In practice, however, the bases for the royalties apparently did not work.
Perupetro will scout about 23 firms that had shown interest in the tender before preparing a new timetable for the bid competition in the next 2 months. Companies that paid $10,000 up front to bid for each block will be able to bid again; others will be expected to buy new bid documents. Perez Companc, Occidental Petroleum Corp., and Agip SpA/Ranger Oil Ltd. presented bids for Block Z-1. Agip and Ranger presented the only bid for Block Z-3. The blocks are in the Tumbes-Progreso basin, which extends into Ecuador's Gulf of Guayaquil, where Amistad gas field has 200 bcf of gas reserves. Block Z-1 covers about 677,000 acres, while Block Z-3 covers about 859,000 acres.
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