Panama:

Kanfer teams up with CB Fenton to create LNG bunkering hub

December 23, 2022, by Jasmina Ovcina Mandra

CB Fenton, part of Ultramar (Chile), and Norwegian small-scale LNG sea transport and bunkering vessels developer Kanfer Shipping signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the aim of establishing a hub for LNG bunkering and small-scale LNG distribution in/out of Panama.

The duo is seeking a partner in the LNG trading space. As disclosed, the purpose would be that the parties define a joint venture (JV) structure where the JV will be chartering ship(s) from Kanfer, buying LNG, and trading it to the maritime industry as well as gas to power clients in the region.

Panama is a strategic location for bunkering being among the most important waterways on earth. Every year there are more than 13,000 ships passing through the locks of the Panama Canal and a significant number of those ships have waiting time before entering the locks.

About 80% of the conventional bunkering is done on the Pacific side (Balboa). For this reason, the parties have agreed to perform a feasibility study for a floating storage unit (FSU) of LNG on the Pacific side.

This FSU will then be a source for smaller ships to supply the growing fleet of dual-fueled ships with LNG, but also distribute the energy to power-intensive industries, power stations, etc., in Central America and West Coast South America.

“We are delighted to partner with Kanfer for such an innovative service. More than 90% of the world trade is moved across the oceans and we believe that it requires cleaner fuel options. An LNG bunkering and distribution hub in Panama is in line with our sustainability strategy and will add value to the trade lanes using the Panama Canal. Our purpose is to contribute to the quality of life in our region of influence, through facilitating foreign trade,” says CB Fenton’s CEO, Marco A. Guerra.

As of today, the only LNG bunkering ships available in the broader region are on US East Coast and US Gulf. Finding alternatives to bunkering in the USA will be important for the industry, the two companies said, adding that before the ships enter the Panama Canal locks, it would be more efficient for them to carry out LNG bunkering on the Pacific side.

There is an increasing number of dual-fuel ships on order standing at 857 orders confirmed. These ships will require LNG bunkering stations and bunkering vessels at strategic locations around the world.

Furthermore, seeing the increasing demand for more environmentally friendly vessels, the duo believes today’s price gap between conventional fuels and LNG will vanish.

“SEA-LNG is pleased to see the continued development of new LNG bunkering infrastructure in strategic maritime locations. In addition to the previously announced bunkering services in Egypt/ Mediterranean, the Suez Canal and the Red Sea, Kanfer Shipping is now teaming up with partners to offer much-needed LNG bunkering services in Panama.

 

 

Energy Dilemmas of Roraima

a Unique Part of Brazil’s Amazon Region

BOA VISTA, Brazil , Dec 21 2022 (IPS) –

  By Mario Osava

A riverside park in Boa Vista, which would probably disappear with the construction of the Bem Querer hydroelectric plant, 120 kilometers downstream on the Branco River. The projection is that the reservoir would flood part of the capital of the state of Roraima, in the extreme north of Brazil.

“Roraima did not have a Caribbean character; now it does, because of its growing relations with Venezuela and Guyana,” said Haroldo Amoras, a professor of economics at the Federal University of this state in the extreme north of Brazil.

Oil that ExxonMobil discovered off the coast of Guyana since 2015 generates wealth that will cross borders and extend to Roraima, linked to Venezuela by energy and migration issues, predicted the economist, the former secretary of planning in the local government from 2004 to 2014.

Roraima, Brazil’s northernmost state, which forms part of the Amazon rainforest, is unique for sharing a border with these two South American countries on the Caribbean Sea and because 19 percent of its 224,300 square kilometers of territory is covered by grasslands, in contrast to the image of the lush green Amazon jungle. It is also the only one of Brazil’s 26 states not connected to the national power grid, SIN, which provides electricity shared by almost the entire country.

This energy isolation means the power supply has been unstable and has caused uncertainty in the search for solutions in the face of sometimes clashing interests. From 2001 to 2019 it relied on imported electricity from Venezuela, from the Guri hydroelectric plant, whose decline led to frequent blackouts until the suspension of the contract two years before it was scheduled to end.

The closure of this source of electricity forced the state to accelerate the operation of old and new diesel, natural gas and biomass thermoelectric power plants. It also helped fuel the proliferation of solar power plants and the debate on cleaner and less expensive alternatives.

Alfredo Cruz would lose the restaurant and home he inherited from his great-grandfather, who registered the property in 1912. The Bem Querer reservoir would lead to the relocation of many riverside dwellers and would even flood part of the capital of the northern Brazilian state of Roraima, Boa Vista, 120 kilometers upriver.

Cruz inherited his restaurant and house from his great-grandfather. The title to the land dates back to 1912, he said. But they will be left under water if the hydroelectric plant is built, even though they are now located several meters above the normal level of the river, he lamented.

In search of energy alternatives

Against this backdrop, the Roraima Alternative Energy Forum emerged, promoted by the non-governmental Socio-environmental Institute (ISA) and the Climate and Society Institute (ICS) and involving members of the business community, engineers from the Federal University of Roraima (UFRR) and individuals, indigenous leaders and other stakeholders.

The objectives range from influencing sectoral policies and stimulating renewable sources in the local market to monitoring government decisions for isolated systems, such as the one in Roraima, as well as proposing measures to reduce the costs and environmental damage of such systems.

“Not everyone (in the Forum) is opposed to the construction of the Bem Querer hydroelectric plant, but there is a consensus that there is a lack of information to evaluate its benefits for society and whether they justify the huge investment in the project,” said biologist Ciro Campos, an ISA analyst and one of the Forum’s coordinators

Bem Querer, a power plant with the capacity to generate 650 megawatts, three times the demand of Roraima, is the solution advocated by the central government to guarantee a local power supply while providing the surplus to the rest of the country.

For this reason, the project is presented as inseparable from the transmission line between Manaus, capital of the state of Amazonas with a population of 2.2 million, and Boa Vista, the capital of Roraima, population 437,000. The line involves 721 kilometers of cables that would connect Roraima to the national grid.

Indigenous people in Roraima are striving to install solar plants in villages and are studying how to take advantage of the winds in their territories, considered favorable for wind energy. Their aim is to prevent the construction of Bem Querer and other hydroelectric plants that would affect indigenous lands, according to Edinho Macuxi, coordinator of the Indigenous Council of Roraima.

“In its design, Bem Querer looks towards Manaus, not Roraima,” Campos complained, ruling out a necessary link between the power plant and the transmission line. “We could connect to the SIN, but with a safe and autonomous model, not dependent on the national system” and subject to negative effects for the environment and development, he argued.

Hydroelectric damage

The plant would dam the Branco River, the state’s main water source, to form a 519-square-kilometer reservoir, according to the governmental Energy Research Company (EPE). It would even flood part of Boa Vista, some 120 kilometers upstream.

The hydropower plant would both meet the goal of covering the state’s entire demand for electricity and abolish the use of fossil fuels, diesel and natural gas, which account for 79 percent of the energy consumed in the state, according to the distribution company, Roraima Energia. But it would have severe environmental and social impacts. “It would make the riparian forests disappear,” which are almost unique in the extensive savannah area, locally called “lavrado,” of grasses and sparse trees, said Reinaldo Imbrozio, a forestry engineer with the National Institute of Amazonian Research (Inpa).

A view of the Branco River, five kilometers above where its waters would be dammed if the controversial Bem Querer hydroelectric plant is built, which would generate enough electricity to meet the entire demand of the Brazilian state of Roraima as well as a surplus for export, but would have environmental and social impacts magnified by the flatness of the basin that requires a very large reservoir.
Branco River, five kilometers above where its waters would be dammed if the controversial Bem Querer hydroelectric plant is built, which would generate enough electricity to meet the entire demand of Roraima as well as a surplus for export, but would have environmental and social impacts magnified by the flatness of the basin that requires a very large reservoir.

Flooding of the Branco and Cauamé rivers, which surround the city, will directly affect nine indigenous territories and will have an indirect impact on others, complained Edinho Macuxi, general coordinator of the Indigenous Council of Roraima (CIR), which represents 465 communities of 10 native peoples.

The CIR, together with ISA and the ICS, built two solar energy projects in the villages and carried out studies on the wind potential, already recognized in the indigenous territories of northern Roraima.

“The main objective of our initiatives is to prove to the central government that we don’t need Bem Querer or other hydroelectric projects…that represent less land and more confusion, more energy and less food for us,” he stressed.

“We will have to leave, said the engineers who were here for the studies of the river,” said Alfredo Cruz, owner of a restaurant on the banks of the Branco River, about five kilometers upstream from the site chosen for the dam. At that spot visitors can swim in the dry season, when the water level in the river is low.

 

Economics Professor Haroldo Amoras says the state of Roraima is becoming more Caribbean, because its economy is increasingly linked to its neighboring countries to the north of Brazil, Guyana and Venezuela, which, in addition to being importers, are the route to the Caribbean for Roraima’s agricultural and agro-industrial products.

The rapids there show the slight slope of the rocky riverbed. It is a flat river, without waterfalls, which means a larger reservoir. The heavy flow would be used to generate electricity in a run-of-river power plant.

Riverside dwellers, fishermen and indigenous people will suffer the effects, Imbozio said. The property of large landowners and people who own mansions will also be flooded, but they have been guaranteed good compensation.

What the Forum’s Campos proposes is the promotion of renewable sources, without giving up diesel and natural gas thermoelectric plants for the time being, but reducing their share in the mix in the long term, and ruling out the Bem Querer dam, which he said is too costly and harmful.

Energy issues will influence the future of Roraima, according to Professor Amoras. The most environmentally viable hydroelectric plants, such as one suggested on the Cotingo River, in the northeast of the state, with a high water fall, including a canyon, are banned because they are located in indigenous territory, he said.

The participation of civil society is important for the Brazilian state of Roraima to make progress towards sustainable energy alternatives that can reduce diesel consumption, offer energy security and avoid the impacts of hydroelectric dams, according to Ciro Campos, an analyst with the non-governmental Socio-environmental Institute.
The participation of civil society is important for Roraima to make progress towards sustainable energy alternatives that can reduce diesel consumption, offer energy security and avoid the impacts of hydroelectric dams, according to Ciro Campos, an analyst with the non-governmental Socio-environmental Institute.

CREDIT: Mario Osava/IPS

Oil wealth, route to the Caribbean

In neighboring countries, oil wealth opens a market for Brazilian exports and, through their ports, access to the Caribbean. The Guyanese economy will grow 48 percent this year, according to the World Bank.

Roraima’s exports have grown significantly in recent years, although they reached just a few tens of millions of dollars last year.

Guyana’s small population of 790,000, the unpaved road connecting it to Roraima and the fact that the language there is English make doing business with Guyana difficult, but relations are expanding thanks to oil money.

This will pave the way to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), whose scale does not attract transnational corporations, but will interest Roraima companies, said Fabio Martinez, deputy secretary of planning in the Roraima state government.

Venezuela expanded its imports from Roraima, of local products or from other parts of Brazil, because U.S. embargoes restricted trade via ports and thus favored sales across the land border, he said.

“The liberalization of trade with the United States and Colombia will now affect our exports, but a recovery of the Venezuelan economy and the rise of oil can compensate for the losses,” Martinez said.

Roraima is a new agricultural frontier in Brazil and its soybean production is growing rapidly. But “we want to export products with added value, to develop agribusiness,” said Martinez.

That will require more energy, which in Roraima is subsidized, costing consumers in the rest of Brazil two billion reais (380 million dollars) a year. If the state is connected to the national grid through the transmission line from Manaus, there will be “more availability, but electricity will become more expensive in Roraima,” he warned.

 

Colombia:

Arrow Exploration provides operations update

23 Dec 2022

Arrow Exploration, the high-growth operator with a portfolio of assets across key Colombian hydrocarbon basins, has provided an operations update.

Drilling Rig Mobilized to Rio Cravo Este Multiwell Pad

Arrow has initiated the drilling rig move to Rio Cravo Este (RCE) to further exploit the Carbonera Sandstone reservoir. Three additional infill wells will be drilled in Q1 2023 with RCE-3 expected to spud in January 2023. RCE-4 and RCE-5 will be drilled in sequence. The drilling rig was initially delayed due to a different operator experiencing operational issues. The infill wells have similar productivity potential to RCE-2 and RCS-1 which are currently producing 850 BOPD net, well above forecasted rates. RCE-2 was paid out in 37 days with an onstream net cost of $4.2MM.

Upon completion of the RCE-3, RCE-4 and RCE-5 wells, the Company is contemplating drilling two to three additional wells into the Gacheta Sandstone reservoir in the fault bounded RCE structure. RCE-2 tested rates exceeding 700 BOPD gross from the Gacheta Sandstone. Dedicated Gacheta wells would likely spud in Q3 2023.

Arrow has also completed preparation of an additional field to be used for production water dispersion. In combination, the two fields are expected to meet the Company’s water disposal requirements until a water disposal well is drilled which is expected mid-2023.

Carrizales Norte Operations

Earlier this month Arrow began construction of the road, pad and cellars for the three planned Carrizales Norte (CN) wells which are expected to be drilled sometime between March and June 2023. The road and pad being constructed are being built to meet all weather conditions. This will allow the Company to continue capital activities as well as move production in the summer and winter seasons.

The Company is in discussions with a separate drilling company to bring in a second drilling rig to drill CN-1, CN-2 and CN-3. This would advance the drilling of Carrizales Norte by approximately six weeks.

3D Seismic Project, Tapir Block

Arrow has commenced the 134 sq km 3D seismic project on the Tapir block. Hiring in the local communities and the required surface land work began on schedule. The 3D seismic project is scheduled to be completed in Q1 2023. This 3D survey will define multiple fault-bounded structures which are the prevailing trapping mechanisms in the Llanos Basin. Existing 2D seismic data has indicated multiple leads on the Tapir Block and the 3D will resolve existing and additional leads and prospects. Initial drilling on defined low risk prospects could occur as early as Q4 2023.

Workover Program

Arrow is continuing to recomplete existing wells that display additional production upside in unperforated zones. This program has been successful in both the RCE field and the Oso Pardo Field. The Company is also considering additional perforations on RCS-1 once RCE-3 RCE-4 and RCE-5 are completed.

Balance Sheet

Arrow has a healthy balance sheet with all operations being supported by cash on hand and operational cash flow. Cash balance as of 1 December 2022 was $14MM.

For further info re Arrow’s Colombian acreage, see Presentation November 2022

Source: Arrow Exploration

 

 

US Congress passes Bolivar Act banning deals with Maduro’s gov’t

Monday, December 19th 2022 – 09:47 UTC

Full article 

Faria said the US authorities were placing companies “at risk of being arbitrarily, unjustly and illegally penalized for exercising their right to free trade”

The US Senate has passed the so-called Bolivar Act whereby no business may be conducted with the Venezuelan regime of President Nicolás Maduro.

The bill, which had already been greenlighted by the House of Representatives, bans federal agencies from doing business with anyone who supports Maduro’s administration. The initiative had been unanimously approved by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in March 2021.

“We all know what Nicolás Maduro is doing in Venezuela. He is starving his own citizens. He is imprisoning his political enemies. He is providing a foothold for Russia, Iran, Communist China, and Hezbollah and he is actively destabilizing our hemisphere. There is no reason why the U.S. government should work with companies that also work with such a repugnant dictator,” said Senator Rick Scott.

The prohibition would only apply to contracts entered into as of the bill’s enactment and would not affect any business with the legitimately elected government of the National Assembly and its elected successors, it was explained.

The legislation also provides for necessary exceptions, including:

1. 1. 1. humanitarian aid,
      2. disaster relief, and
      3. when the Office of Foreign Assets Control issues a valid license to do business in Venezuela.

It also allows the Secretary of State to remove the restriction when it is in the U.S. national interest.

In Caracas, the Maduro administration issued a statement saying the Bolivar Act aims to dynamite any path to understanding and dialogue between the two nations and dubbed it “an unfortunate bill that, both in its name and in its content,” which “constitutes a violation of economic freedoms and a serious offense to the Venezuelan people.”

“This instrument, contrary to international law and conceived from the extremist sectors of US politics, violates the integrity of the sovereign people of Venezuela, as well as that of US companies themselves,” Caracas argued.

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Carlos Faria said the US authorities were placing companies “at risk of being arbitrarily, unjustly and illegally penalized for exercising their right to free trade through contracts with the Bolivarian Government” through a measure that shows “the fury of ultra-conservative and coup-mongering sectors in the U.S. policy, which are relentless in their attempt to overthrow the Venezuelan Government and to dynamite any possible route to dialogue and constructive relations between both countries.”

The Maduro government also criticized the name given to the measure, which is disrespectful of Simón Bolívar’s “commitment to the principles of freedom and peace are far above those of a handful of legislators ignorant of his glory.”

 

 

CNOOC to exit the West

April 15, 2022

Reports cites sanctions concerns, regulations, and costs.

Offshore staff

BEIJING – CNOOC is reportedly preparing to exit its operations in the US, UK and Canada because of sanctions concerns, regulations, and costs, industry sources told Reuters.

CNOOC wanted to sell “marginal and hard to manage” assets in the three countries. CNOOC top management found it “uncomfortable” to manage the Western assets because of regulations and high operating costs. CNOOC had entered the three countries through a $15 billion acquisition of Canadian oil and gas giant Nexen that closed in 2013.

The company was listed on the New York Stock Exchange since 2001 but former President Donald Trump’s administration added CNOOC to a list of companies owned or controlled by the PRC military in December 2020.

Following an executive order by Trump, CNOOC was delisted from the NYSE in October 2021. It was removed from the blacklist by President Joe Biden in June 2021.

Assets like Gulf of Mexico deepwater are technologically challenging and CNOOC really needed to work with partners to learn, but company executives were not even allowed to visit the US offices.

CNOOC wanted to exit the operations because of concerns in Beijing that the assets could face Western sanctions.

US deputy secretary of state Wendy Sherman said last week that if China helped Russia “in any material fashion” amid sweeping sanctions from the West, China itself could also be sanctioned.

CNOOC is China’s biggest offshore oil and gas producer. It produced, on average, around 1.57 million barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2021, of which 62,000 were from sites in Canada and 80,000 were from sites elsewhere in North America, it said in its annual report. Reuters calculated that CNOOC’s assets in the US, UK, and Canada collectively produce around 220,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.

In the US, CNOOC owns onshore assets in the Eagle Ford and Niobrara shale basins and also has offshore stakes in the Stampede and Appomattox fields in the Gulf of Mexico.

It has oil sands and shale gas assets in Canada.

In the UK, it operates three sites in northeast Scotland but PRC is clearly an existential threat in light of Russian conflict in Ukraine.

CNOOC had launched a review of its global portfolio as it prepares to list on the Shanghai stock exchange this month. CNOOC is reportedly planning to buy assets in Latin America and Africa as it prepares to leave its Western operations. In its 2021 annual report, the company said it was eyeing the Bohai and South China seas as well as parts of Guyana for production growth.

(Guyana can escape the clutches of totalitarian tyrants by urging the acquisition of CNOOC share of Stabroek Block by Exxon, BP and Shell to guarantee energy security for Europe and halt expansion of PRC footprints in Caricom.)

 

A brighter sun

US Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm announced the major scientific breakthrough in fusion research that was made at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.

At 1.03 am on December 5, giant lasers at a laboratory in America blasted a cylinder containing a particle of hydrogen. The beams vaporised the cylinder, producing an onslaught of X-rays which compressed the hydrogen. For a moment, a flood of neutron particles – the product of fusion – ensued and there was a substantial energy gain.

When it was over, a milestone in reproducing the power of the sun had been passed. The announcement by California’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory sparked international excitement. Inside the sun and other stars, fusion continually transforms hydrogen atoms into helium, producing the light and warmth that bathes our planet.

If this source of energy can be deployed on a large scale, it would mean humanity could eliminate the burning of fossil fuels and could avoid producing radioactive waste from nuclear power plants. We are one step closer to brighter days.

It all comes just in time for the winter solstice, the shortest day in the year, which in ancient cultures all over the world once marked the symbolic death and rebirth of the sun.But as dramatic as this week’s announcement was, don’t expect things to change overnight.

For a long time, scientists were unable to generate enough energy to outweigh the energy consumed by the generation process. It has taken decades to arrive at this point, as well as billions upon billions of dollars, and it is likely it will take decades for fusion to become widely available on a practical scale, if ever.

Meanwhile, the demand for energy continues to rise. After falling by about one per cent in 2020 owing to the impact of the covid19 pandemic, global electricity demand rose by close to five per cent this year, according to the International Energy Agency. Most of this increase in demand comes from the Asia Pacific region, primarily China and India.

Problems caused by carbon emissions from the power sector are global.

There is a push to embrace renewable power and to wean the world off oil and gas. Yet the pace of progress is not fast enough. Renewable sector growth has only exceeded demand growth twice, emissions continue to rise, and international co-operation is faltering.

While this month’s breakthrough is a hopeful thing, it might also ironically precipitate an even more frenzied exploitation of fossil fuels.

Locally, the Government last week announced the signing of a major solar-project agreement with a consortium of firms that have traditionally been aligned with fossil fuels. We need more projects like this one.

But such transactions, if they are to be anything other than “greenwashing,” should involve real, sincere change, driven by actors who can truly help us reach for the stars.