Bolivia President Luis Alberto Arce Catacora stated the nation’s authorities has found a “mega subject” in an announcement posted on his X web page, which was translated from Spanish.
“Years in the past, $500 million was spent exploring the north of La Paz and completely nothing was discovered,” Catacora stated within the translated assertion.
“Immediately, with almost $50 million of funding, our authorities has found a mega subject within the north of La Paz, the third greatest producing subject in your complete nation,” he added.
“We’re referring to the Mayaya Centro X1 Area, whose drilling started on November 25, 2022, as a part of the Upstream Reactivation Plan executed by YPFB. In response to formation assessments, the properly has confirmed the presence of gaseous and liquid HCB within the center and decrease Copacabana and Tomachi formations,” he continued.
Catacora outlined within the translated assertion that 1.7 trillion cubic ft of potential reserves had been confirmed on the discover and labelled it “a very powerful discovery since 2005”.
“No doubt, with this discovery La Paz enters a very completely different dimension, as a result of we could have royalties as a producing division,” Catacora famous within the translated assertion.
“This properly marks the start of a brand new chapter for the northern sub-Andean area, providing hope of sustaining our nation as an essential gasoline exporter, selling a second period of hydrocarbon manufacturing, and inserting La Paz as a hydrocarbon producing division,” he added.
A Bolivia information on the U.S. Worldwide Commerce Administration web site, which was final up to date on June 5, states that, in keeping with the most recent worldwide analysis of potential gasoline reserves in 2017, Bolivia possesses roughly 12.5 trillion cubic ft of pure gasoline reserves, each confirmed and estimated.
Of this quantity, 10.7 Tcf are confirmed reserves, the positioning notes, including that Bolivia has greater than 240.95 million barrels of confirmed crude oil reserves. The federal government estimates one other 47.8 million barrels of possible reserves and one other 78.4 million barrels of potential reserves, the positioning says.
“Within the hydrocarbons sector, Bolivia at present produces a mean of 36 million cubic meters of gasoline per day (MMcmpd), utilizing 12 MMcmpd for home consumption, whereas exporting 15.0 MMcmpd to Brazil and eight MMcmpd to Argentina,” the positioning states.
“Hydrocarbons accounted for about 22 % of Bolivia’s exports, or $2.9 billion, in 2022. The state-owned hydrocarbons firm, Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB), usually types joint ventures (55-45 % sharing, with the state proudly owning the bulk share) for a restricted interval of 40 years with personal firms for extraction providers,” it provides.
“YPFB administers a gasoline gross sales settlement with Brazil’s state-owned oil firm Petrobras and one other settlement with Argentina. Present hydrocarbons legal guidelines require that firms promote all manufacturing to YPFB, and that home market demand be met earlier than exporting hydrocarbons,” it continues.
“Moreover, these legal guidelines switch your complete transport and gross sales chain over to state management. Though the state holds a majority share within the hydrocarbons sector, the federal government has issued incentives and exemptions to encourage funding as a result of lack of funding (particularly in exploration) and a discount within the ranges of confirmed reserves,” the positioning goes on to state.
In response to the Vitality Institute’s (EI) 2024 statistical evaluation of world vitality, Bolivia produced 11.9 billion cubic meters of gasoline final 12 months. This determine marked a 12.9 % 12 months on 12 months lower and 0.3 % of world gasoline manufacturing in 2023, the evaluation confirmed. From 2013 to 2023, Bolivia’s gasoline manufacturing has decreased by a yearly common of 4.8 %, the evaluation outlined.
The EI evaluation’s gasoline manufacturing figures exclude gasoline flared or recycled and embody pure gasoline produced for gasoline to liquids transformation.
In an exploration phase on its web site, which was translated from Spanish, YPFB notes that, in July 2021, it introduced the launch of the Upstream Reactivation Plan, “with the goal of investing within the exploration and exploitation of gasoline and oil within the nation”.
“In response to the state oil firm, the PRU at present contains 30 native exploration alternatives, of which 26 are for gasoline and 4 for oil, along with regional exploration alternatives,” the phase states.
“It additionally contains three improvement alternatives for reactivation of mature fields, that are scheduled to start manufacturing in 2022,” it provides.
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