Peru offers oil and gas exploration blocks, technical agreements (updated)

Frontera Energy

02/02/2023 19:20

(Adds details, quote)
    By Marianna Parraga
       HOUSTON, Feb 2 (Reuters) - Peru's state energy agency
PeruPetro is offering areas for oil and gas exploration through
direct negotiations with interested companies and up to 31
separate technical contracts, hoping to boost the nation's
reserves, officials said on Thursday.
    President Dina Boluarte's administration is relaxing some
participation terms and issuing a new call for investment. Of
the Andean country's eight exploration basins, three remain
largely unexplored.  
        The 31 areas on offer for two-year technical evaluation
agreements are located at Peru's Marañon, Ucayali, Salaverry,
Madre de Dios and Tumbes basins, PeruPetro's board member
Fernando Ruiz Lecaros told investors in Houston.
  
        U.S.-based Jaguar Exploration, Canada's PetroTal  TAL.V 
and China's state oil company CNPC  CNPET.UL  have submitted
requests to sign technical agreements, officials from the agency
said.
  
        "Due to higher oil and gas prices, we are seeing more
interest from investors in these technical agreements," Ruiz
Lecaros said.
  
        After the two-year evaluation period, the contracts give
companies a chance to negotiate an exploration license with
PeruPetro. 
  
        PRIZE BLOCK
  
        Peru's government also expects that a separate contract
negotiation for Block 192 with state-run oil company Petroperu
will be completed in the coming months. An agreement could allow
the firm to restart oil output next year at the idled Amazonian
field, energy Vice Minister Enrique Bisetti said.
  
        Any new output would be transported through the
Norperuano pipeline, which recently has worked intermittently
amid protests and interruptions, officials said. 
  
        Block 192 is the country's largest field and was one of
its leading oil producing areas for decades. Production there
was halted in 2020 after extensive damage to the surrounding
forest, followed by Frontera Energy's exit of the area and
Petroperu's struggles to provide the required credit guarantees.
  
        The officials said 
    widespread protests in Peru
     have not affected oil or gas production, but have had an
impact on some mining operations.
  
        "Reducing social conflict is one of our largest
challenges," Bisetti said. 
  
 (Reporting by Marianna Parraga)
 ((Marianna.Parraga@thomsonreuters.com))