Seismic studies in Peru's Madre de Dios basin will start this month, following Petroperu SA's signing of licensing exploration and development contracts Mar. 26 with units of Mobil Oil Corp., Exxon Corp., and Elf Aquitaine.
Mobil Exploration & Producing Peru Inc., the operator of Blocks 77 and 78, Las Piedras and Tambopata respectively, signed a seismic contract with Grant Geophysical the following day.
Meanwhile, the Peruvian government late last month also approved an oil and gas exploration and development licensing contract for northern coast Block XIII with Olympic Peru Inc., a subsidiary of Olympic Oil & Gas Co., Houston.
Mobil group program
Mobil is exploring the two blocks in association with Elf Petroleum Peru BV and Esso Exploration & Production Peru Ltd.
Each company holds one-third of the contract. Blocks 77 and 78 cover an area of 3.75 million acres each.
The contract with state agency Perupetro commits the companies to shoot 600 km of seismic in Block 77 and 400 km in Block 78 during the minimum work program. They must also drill five exploratory wells on each block during the 7-year exploration stage. Perupetro estimates the minimum investment at $120 million.
Alberto Bruce, Perupetro's chairman, said royalties will range from a minimum of 15-17% to 37-41%, subject to oil prices and volume when the fields start producing.
Mobil has been negotiating the Madre de Dios contracts since 1994, after completing a 2-year, 22.25 million-acre technical evaluation assessment in the Madre de Dios basin, which extends into Bolivia.
Mobil had already made environmental impact studies covering both blocks and developed an environmental management program to minimize impact on the tropical jungle and its local communities.
Mobil has been seeking oil in Peru on and off since the 1960s, when it discovered the Aguaytia gas field in partnership with Cia. Petroleos El Oriente and its German associates.
Together with the predecessor to Unocal Corp., it also explored the Santiago basin.
Mobil more recently explored a large area of the Huallaga basin and conducted seismic studies and drilled a dry hole on northern jungle Block 62.
Apart from its latest contracts, Mobil is negotiating a contract in association with Royal Dutch/Shell Group in Block 75 and will be Shell's partner in the proposed development of the Camisea natural gas/condensate fields. Both areas are in the Ucaya* basin.
Elf is exploring Block 66 in the Ene basin and is a partner with Quintana Minerals Corp., YPF SA, and Enterprise Oil plc in Block 50 in the Santiago basin.
Esso returns to Peru almost 3 decades after the military government in 1968 expropriated the operations of its former subsidiary, International Petroleum Corp.
