By an OGJ Online Correspondent
LIMA, Feb. 23�The Shell-Mobil consortium operating in Peru has informed Perupetro, the state oil agency, that it will return Block 75, neighboring the Camisea natural gas fields, when the next stage of its contract expires Mar. 17.
Shell Prospecting & Development (Peru) BV and Mobil Exploration & Producing Peru Inc. signed an exploration license for the block on Mar. 18, 1997. Shell, the operator, holds 57.5%, and Mobil 42.5%.
Shell-Mobil withdrew from the Camisea fields in July 1998 after completing a 2-year appraisal contract of the fields, which the Royal Dutch/Shell Group had discovered in the early 1980s. But it kept Block 75, for which it had a separate exploration and production license and where it had found gas in early 1998.
The Camisea fields in Block 88 have estimated reserves of 13 tcf of gas and 600 million bbl of condensate. Block 75's gas reserves are estimated at 3 tcf.
Perupetro has yet to decide what it will do with Block 75.