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Illustrative file photo of the Petroecuador logo at the Esmeraldas refinery
QUITO, April 1 (Archyde.com) – Ecuador’s state oil company, Petroecuador, announced on Friday that it will seek through tenders to private operators the rehabilitation of wells currently closed and the capture of associated gas in its fields in the country’s Amazon.
The two processes will be under the model of specific services with financing, which implies setting a formula indexed to the reference WTI crude oil and gas and liquid transportation service rates, while the operator that is awarded the contract will assume the total investment.
In a first phase, the reopening of 100 closed wells will be tendered, the same ones that have facilities, environmental licenses and are located in fields that are in production.
Petroecuador’s goal is to seek the rehabilitation of approximately 1,000 closed wells.
The tender “will allow production to be increased by some 15,000 barrels per day, in approximately 8 months, with an estimated investment of 80 million dollars,” said the manager of Petroecuador, Ítalo Cedeño, in a statement.
While the plans of the state oil company for associated gas is to capture its production in the fields and transport it to a gas plant, located in the Shushufindi refining complex, which will optimize its operation.
Cedeño said that the estimated investment for this project, the first to be carried out in the country and which seeks to minimize the environmental impacts resulting from the burning of gas, would require an investment of more than 100 million dollars.
Petroecuador will receive expressions of interest from local and foreign companies until next April 7 to be invited to the bidding process for each project, the statement added.
The bidding processes are part of the state oil company’s plan to increase its oil equivalent production by some 100,000 barrels a day this year, from its current extraction level of more than 385,000 barrels a day.
(Reporting by Alexandra Valencia, Editing by Manuel Farías)