Petroleos del Peru is forging ahead on several fronts despite Peru's political turmoil and uncertainty over where government ordered privatization will take it.
The state oil company:
- Is expected to sign contracts soon related to development of Chambira oil field in the northern jungle.
- Let contract to a group of Peruvian and Brazilian companies for construction of an oil terminal at Talara on the Pacific coast.
- Received expressions of interest in participating in an operating contract on an offshore block operated by its Petromar SA offshore subsidiary under the government's privatization program.
CHAMBIRA PROJECT
Petroperu soon will issue a call for contract bids on pipeline and infrastructure construction and drilling four wells in its Chambira oil field on Block 8.
Petroperu drilled a discovery and a delineation well at Chambira in 1989 and estimates proved reserves at 15.4 million bbl and possible reserves at as much as 50 million bbl.
Petroperu got the $48.4 million project off the ground after signing a $24.8 million loan agreement with the Andean Development Fund (CAF). Petroperu Pres. Jaime Quijandria said CAF funding will pay for the project's first stage.
CAF withheld the loan pending completion of an environmental impact study of the Maranon basin field in the Amazon jungle.
Plans call for producing 3,500 bid of oil within the next 12 months and as much as 7,500 bid by October 1994.
First stage of the project entails building an operations camp for 25 workers and laving a 30 km feeder pipeline to the North Peruvian trunk line at Corrientes. Petroperu plans to reenter the two Chambira wells and drill four development wells.
A special environmental feature of the project is a planned pipeline to transport produced water from the Chambira wells to specially built storage tanks for treatment.
TALARA TERMINAL
Petroperu let contract to a group made up of Cosapi SA and Gessa Ingenieros SA, both of Lima, and Construtora Andrade Gutierrez, Belo Horizonte, Brazil, for construction of a crude and products loading terminal at Talara, 568 miles north of Lima.
Work on the $29 million project was to begin last month and be complete in 20 months. The project is partly financed by a $12.6 million loan from CAF and a $4.5 million loan from Cofide, Peru's state development financing corporation. Petroperu must raise the remaining $11.9 million from domestic sources.
Involved is installation of a main loading terminal designed to accommodate tankers of as much as 35,000 dwt capacity. A separate berth for small barges and other vessels of as much as 25,000 dwt is to be built in a second stage.
The units will replace 65 year old facilities Petroperu uses to receive crude oil for its Talara refinery and to export refined products.
PETROMAR PRIVATIZATION
Quijandria said companies interested in possibly taking over the Petromar operatorship of Block Z-2 off Peru (see map, OGJ, Aug. 31, p. 22) include Hallwood Petroleum Inc., Denver, Petromar service boat contractor International Marine Inc., and a combine of Chile's state oil company Empresa Nacional del Petroleo and Perez Companc, Buenos Aires.
Petroperu this summer began selling bid packages for an operating contract on Block Z-2 in the Pacific Ocean off Northwest Peru, where Petromar has operated since the administration of President Alan Garcia expropriated the Peruvian oil field assets of Belco Petroleum Corp. in December 1985.
The current administration of President Alberto Fujimori is conducting a sweeping privatization campaign that envisions selling all state companies before Fujimori's term expires.
Bidding is expected to close this month, with the transfer of operatorship to the winning bidder scheduled to occur in January 1993. At that time, Petroperu will liquidate Petromar.
Production from Block Z-2 had fallen to 15,000 bid earlier this year from 27,000 bid at the time of the Belco expropriation, although Petromar boosted production to 16,000 b/d and 58 MMcfd of gas by midsummer. Peak production was 30,000 bid in 1976.
Petromar, plagued by cash shortages since the Belco expropriation, is offering incentives to employees to cut staff to 1,000 from 1,600.
PRIVATIZATION PROCEEDS
Funds from Petromar privatization would go to compensating Belco insurers American International Group (AIG), New York, and Belco parent Enron Corp.
Meantime, AIG said it has resolved its claims regarding Belco expropriation. AIG in July tentatively reached agreement with the government to conclude a preliminary agreement signed last December.
The insurance company is awaiting a bank guarantee to cover the expropriation compensation, to be paid in 7 years. The tentative agreement calls for payment of $184 million plus interest.
Under the latest agreement, the government will make a down payment to AIG of $40 million in two equal installments.
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