1970-01-01 02:00:00
Powder Marianna Parraga
HOUSTON (Reuters) – Brazilian state-owned Petrobras has abandoned a plan to sell its 44% stake in a promising offshore gas project it shares with Colombia’s Ecopetrol in the Andean nation, a Petrobras executive told an energy conference in Houston on Monday. -fair.
Petrobras and Ecopetrol announced last year a discovery of natural gas in the deep water well Uchuva-1, in the Tayrona block, 32 kilometers off the coast of Colombia. Two years earlier, the Brazilian company had put its stake up for sale after poor exploration results in a previous well, Orca-1.
Petrobras operates the Tayrona block, which is expected to deliver Colombia’s first gas production from deepwater fields in 2026, connecting to nearby infrastructure, according to Ecopetrol’s projections.
“Not anymore,” said Carlos Travassos, Petrobras’ director of production development, when asked about plans to sell the company’s stake in Tayrona.
“We saw the relevance of this,” he said on the sidelines of the Offshore Technology Conference.
Colombia wants to accelerate the discovery and development of its offshore gas reserves to avoid the need for imports and boost industries from energy to petrochemicals. Neighboring Venezuela has offered to export gas, but top executives at Ecopetrol and other producers have said the country must prioritize developing its own resources.
Up to 4 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of natural gas reserves could be confirmed in Tayrona, the executive said, making it a very promising project alongside Ecopetrol’s Gorgon ultra-deepwater gas field and Shell and another deepwater venture by Occidental Petroleum and Ecopetrol to begin drilling in 2025.
A new drilling campaign is planned for 2024 by Tayrona’s stakeholders to move towards this goal.
Petrobras is analyzing the information collected in the last drilling campaign.
“Depending on this analysis, maybe we can accelerate (the next drilling campaign). We are having a very good experience,” said Travassos.
(Reporting by Mariana Parraga)
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