Enron Inc. affiliates signed both short-term and long-term contracts under which a subsidiary of Tulsa-based Vintage Petroleum Inc. will supply a total of 69.6 bcf of Bolivian natural gas to a power project in Brazil and future markets in the Southern Cone of South America, Vintage reported.
Under a short-term contract with Vintage Petroleum Boliviana Ltd., Enron may purchase up to 14.5 MMcfd of gas or a total of 2.6 bcf over a 6-month period for the Cuiaba integrated energy project in Brazil.
In 1998, Enron International and Shell International Gas Ltd. agreed to develop a $500 million natural gas project at Cuiaba, in Brazil's Mato Grasso state (Oil & Gas Journal, Oct. 12, 1998, p. 44). The project, to be developed in three stages, includes the gas-fired, combined-cycle power plant at Cuiaba, and a 630-km pipeline to deliver Bolivian gas to that plant.
Under the long-term contract Enron can buy up to 15.4 MMcfd or a total of 67 bcf over an unspecified period, contingent upon Enron's development of projects and marketing opportunities in the Southern Cone, encompassing the lower part of South America.
Contract terms were not disclosed, but Vintage officials called the agreements an "important step" in expanding the firm's South American operations.
Since entering Bolivia in 1996, Vintage has grown its proved reserves to 563 bcf of gas equivalent, and its productive capacity to 50 MMcfd equivalent of gas by the end of 1999, said S. Craig George, CEO.