No updates have been received in late Q3 2018 as to the status of the Amistad gas field (Block 6) auction. On 14 August 2018, Petroamazonas General Manager, Alex Galarraga, detailed that bids will be received for the offshore Amistad gas field (Block 6) located in the Gulf of Guayaquil in the first week of September 2018. Four packages of onshore fields were awarded on the same day from Campos Oil & Gas 2018 after offers were received on 29 May 2018. However, interested companies (apparently three have shown an interest) requested an extension to the closing date for offers for the only offshore field on offer to give them more time to evaluate the field and compile their bids. One of the companies interested in Amistad has been reported in local press as being Halliburton. The gas field being tendered under an eight-year gas contract for integrated services with financing from the contractor, received six Letters of Intent by the initial deadline on 27 March 2018. The service contract will have variable tariffs and be indexed to the West Texas Intermediate crude benchmark. The contractor executes the activity and the services and Petroamazonas pays the contractor at least five years of deferred payment from the execution of the activity or service at a preferential interest rate agreed between the parties. Galagarra cautioned in mid-August 2018 that the option of developing this gas field may be abandoned, with a decision due by the end of September 2018, as being unviable for investors if the cost of drilling is revealed as being too high based on current studies of wells. Due to Ecuador's gas deficit and the complex nature of developing Amistad, the Ecuadorean government and state-run company are looking at alternative gas supply options. Ecuadorean authorities visited Peru on 23 August 2018 to investigate this option. It appears that Ecuador is still seeking to go down the Peruvian route as Ecuador's Energy Minster, Carlos Perez Garcia, remarked in mid-October 2018 that talks are ongoing with Peru to jointly operate oil and gas fields on the border and allow Petroamazonas to operate natural gas areas in Peru. "We could form a joint venture between (state-run oil firms) Petroamazonas and Petroperu plus a private company to bring in capital," Perez stated to local media. The crude to be jointly produced along the border would feed Peru's Talara refinery through an existing pipeline, while natural gas to be produced in Peruvian territory would be exported to Ecuador to ease gas shortages there.In 2011, Ecuador took over control of the shallow water field from Noble Energy. Operated by Petroamazonas, in March 2012, Ecuador said it had interpreted a 1.7 Tcfg seismically defined prospect in the area. The field is producing 39 MMcfg/d (6,945 boe/d), with 11 MMcfg/d (2,137 boe/d) of incremental production estimated in the life of the new contract. Gas has been produced since October 2003 principally from the Miocene Subibaja Formation.<P />
Ecuador - Bid Rounds, Promotions & Acreage Releases