The Minister of Hydrocarbons and Energies, Franklin Molina, reported that the Upstream Reactivation Plan enables an investment of US $ 400 million in 2022, which will be used to carry out hydrocarbon exploration and exploitation projects that allow replenishing the reserves and increasing the production of gas and oil.
“Since 2015 we have seen a decline in production and the coup d’état deepened the problem because important projects were stopped, investment stopped. As a result of this situation, we have taken immediate actions, we launched an Upstream Reactivation Plan with projects that are in the process of execution such as Itacaray-X1, Sararenda-X3D and San Miguel X2ST, and others that have yielded positive results such as the case of the Wells Boicobo Sur-X1 and Yarará-X1 ”, expressed the authority.
The minister said that the objectives of this plan are to stabilize hydrocarbon production and improve reserve replacement rates. In this line, he stressed that the priority of the national government is not only to guarantee the supply of the domestic market and comply with export contracts, but also to guarantee production for future industrialization projects of these resources, such as for a possible second plant of urea.
“In this sense, we have been working on the adaptation of current regulations to accompany this entire strategy. Law No. 3058, promulgated in 2004, completed its cycle and adjustments must be made because the hydrocarbon sector requires heavy investments, but at the same time requires a new vision due to how the industry is developing and the prospects that lie ahead in the next years; An example of this is the recent enactment of Supreme Decree No. 4616 to encourage crude oil production, ”said Molina.
For his part, the Vice Minister of Hydrocarbon Exploration and Exploration, Raúl Mayta, indicated that from 2015 to 2019 an average of two geological drilling proposals were developed per year and in 2020 not a single proposal was developed. However, this year 10 exploratory projects were designed, two of which are approved by the YPFB Board of Directors this year, while the remainder will be approved in the following weeks to begin execution in 2022.
“The Upstream Plan considers the lessons learnt from recent years and projects that we will have more exploratory activity, based on projects with technical and economic evaluations and risk analysis ”, he stressed.
In turn, the Vice President of Administration, Contracts and Inspection of Bolivian Fiscal Oilfields (YPFB), Armin Dorgathen, pointed out that the investment of $ 400 million will prioritize the study of prospects that have resources that are around 1 trillion cubic feet ( TCF) or higher. “We are prioritizing large projects, exploration in fields that have resources greater than 1 TCF. That is why next year we will enter projects such as Charagua, Iñau, Vitiacua, which are quite significant projects in terms of volumes ”, he added.
Finally, Minister Molina affirmed that this investment scheduled for the following management will enable the Boicobo Sur-X1 and Yarará-X1 wells to enter the production phase in the middle of the year, thereby increasing oil and gas production.
Source: https://www.bnamericas.com/en/news/upstream-reactivation-plan-enables-an-investment-of-us–400-million-in-2022-to-increase-gas-and-oil-production-and-replenish-reserves-in-bolivia