PETROECUADOR INHERITS TEXACO VENTURE'S HELM

Petroleos del Ecuador has taken over as operator of its joint venture with Texaco Inc. that accounts for more than two thirds of Ecuador's crude oil production.

Depending upon the outcome of a separate Texaco proposal involving a tertiary oil recovery project, the move could presage Texaco's exit from Ecuador in 2 years.

Petroecuador is pressing efforts to boost production from the joint venture area in the central Oriente jungle region.

Meantime, Petroecuador plans to offer four exploration blocks of about 500,000 acres each in its seventh round of bidding Aug. 15. Three of the blocks are in the north and northeast portions of the Oriente region and have strong potential for medium and heavy crudes. The fourth is in the coastal Guayas province.

Ecuador in April held its sixth round of bidding for exploration acreage covering blocks in the Oriente (see map, OGJ, Dec. 11, 1989, p. 26). Contracts are being negotiated on those bids.

In addition, Petroecuador plans to put out a tender for international companies specializing in well workovers to sign a service contract for the Santa Elena Peninsula area, which has produced oil for more than 50 years.

OPERATOR CHANGES

Texaco will continue to assist Petroecuador as a partner in the joint venture until June 1992.

The change of operator has been anticipated for 2 years as part of an overall plan by the state oil company to take over certain operations previously carried out by private companies (OGJ, Oct. 10, 1988, p. 34).

Petroecuador plans to boost flow from the joint venture fields to 220,000 b/d by yearend from 208,000 b/d at the end of June.

Toward that end, Texaco reports it will invest $12.6 million and Petroecuador $11.6 million for work in all joint venture fields except Shushufindi.

Those outlays will go for drilling seven wells, multiple workovers, and installation of production facilities.

EOR PROJECT'S ROLE

For Shushufindi and Sacha fields, Texaco and Spain's Repsol SA last month submitted plans for a major carbon dioxide flood in a project that could cost as much as $1.1 billion and result in incremental recovery of about 500 million bbl of oil (OGJ, June 4, p. 26).

At 100,000 b/d and 60,000 b/d, respectively, the two fields account for more than half of Ecuador's production. Ecuador's reserves of about 1.5 billion bbl could sustain current production of about 300,000 b/d for 15 years, said Energy and Mines Minister Diego Tamariz.

Occidental Petroleum Corp. apparently has submitted a competing CO2 flood proposal for Shushufindi, although details of that proposal were not available at OGJ presstime.

Petroecuador is considering a tender to choose a partner for the project, which calls for no investment by the state company.

Consequently, Texaco's presence in Ecuador after 1992 could hinge on the tender's outcome.