News Line: Energy in South America and China

Uruguay Opens bids for Offshore Oil, Gas Blocks – reports Uruguay Energy Ministry courtesy of Rigzone

On December 1-3, Uruguay Energy Ministry and ANCAP, the National Oil Company, will launch the offshore licensing round for exploration and exploitation of gas and oil. The blocks on offer, lie in the Punta del Este and Pelotas basins, where water depths range from 50 to 1500 meters, as well as another basin further offshore called Oriental Del Plata. The blocks' areas range from 2,500 to 10,000 square kilometers...

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PetroLatina Commences Drilling Colon-1, IDs 4 New Wells Sites in Colombia - reports PetroLatina courtesy of Rigzone

PetroLatina has announced a further operational update to that released on November 7, 2008.

La Paloma

The Company commenced drilling Colon-1, the first exploratory well to be drilled on the La Paloma block, located in Middle Magdalena Valley, Colombia, on Sunday, November 24, 2008. The Colon-1 well has been drilled vertically to a total depth of approximately 600 feet, to date. Drilling continues to be undertaken vertically to an expected total depth of approximately 9,072 feet in order to test the La Paz, Lisama and Umir formations. Drilling is scheduled to take 25 days in total at a cost of approximately $6 million...

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Petrobras' Platform P-53 Kicks Off Production at Marlim Leste Field – reports Petrobras courtesy of Rigzone

Petrobras announced that platform P-53 kicked-off its operations yesterday, November 30. This is the first production unit installed in the Marlim Leste field, in the Campos Basin.

The P-53 unit has total production capacity of 180,000 barrels per day of heavy oil, 20 degrees API, and compressing capacity up to 6 million cubic meters/day of natural gas. The platform's oil production will be offloaded to shore by shuttle tankers with the assistance of Autonomous Re-pumping Platform PRA-1 and the FSO Cidade de Macae. Part of the gas that is produced will be consumed by the platform itself as fuel to generate electricity, and the remaining will be exported to shore via the Campos Basin's gas network. The platform will reach peak production in the first half of 2010.

Click here to access the full story from Rigzone


Geopark Tests Positive Oil at Manekenk 1 in Chile – reports GeoPark Holdings Limited courtesy of Rigzone

GeoPark Holdings Limited has announced the successful testing of the new Manekenk 1 well on the Fell Block in Chile at an initial rate of approximately 1,300 barrels of oil per day equivalent (boepd). Geopark operates and owns a 100% working interest in the Fell Block...

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Peru's mining/hydrocarbons output rose 4.57% in Oct 2008 – reports Andina.com

Lima, Dec. 01 (ANDINA).- Production in Peru's mining and hydrocarbons sector expanded 4.57% in October from the same month last year, as the mining sub-sector increased 2.72%, the National Statistics Institute (INEI) said Monday...

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PetroChina Starts Developing Offshore Block in Bohai Bay – reports Dowjones Newswires courtesy of Rigzone

PetroChina Co. has started developing an offshore block in Bohai Bay with an output target of 3 million metric tons a year or 60,247 barrels a day, parent company China National Petroleum Corp. said Monday.

The Yuedong block, located in shallow water near Liaoning province, has rich reserves of heavy oil, CNPC said on its Web site, without elaborating.

Yuedong is part of the Liaohe field, China's largest heavy oil field, with annual output at 12 million tons a year or 240,986 barrels a day...

Click here to access the full article from Rigzone


China North East Petroleum's October Crude Oil Production up 135% - reports China North East Petroleum courtesy of Rigzone

China North East Petroleum has announced preliminary results for its October 2008 oil production.

Crude oil production for the month ended October 31, 2008 increased 135%, or 40,479 barrels, to 70,545 barrels from 30,066 barrels for the month ended October 31, 2007. On a sequential basis, crude oil production increased 4,627 barrels, or 7%, compared to the month ended September 30, 2008...

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News Line:

China Development Bank keen to support projects in Peru – reports Andina.com

Lima, Nov. 30 (ANDINA).- The China Development Bank (CDB) is interested in supporting infrastructure and agricultural projects in Peru as part of a cooperation agreement recently signed with Peruvian state-bank Banco de la Nación (BN).

"China Development Bank is very interested in infrastructure and agricultural projects that involve development of rural communities in Peru," BN general manager Julio del Castillo told Andina news agency...

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BRIC Shoppers Will “Rescue World” Says Goldman Sachs Economist – reports Bloomberg's William Mellor and Le-Min Lim

Dec. 1 (Bloomberg) -- The best hope to keep the global economy growing may be people like Wei Yufang. A peasant who farms a small plot beside the mud-brown Huaihe River in central China, Wei has a modest dream: to buy an air conditioner to give her family relief from the dusty heat that each summer envelops Xiaogang (Little Hill) village in Anhui province.

With economies from the U.S. to Japan in recession, Wei and the other 2.8 billion people in Brazil, Russia, India and China may provide the consumer demand needed to counter the slump.

Jim O’Neill, the Goldman Sachs Group Inc. economist who in 2001 coined the acronym BRIC from the initials of the four big emerging economies, says the faster growth investors have come to expect from these countries will survive this crisis. O’Neill, who is based in London, says the citizens of the BRIC nations are poised to spend more. “The BRIC consumer is going to rescue the world,” he says...

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China, India Drop Inflation Controls as Economic Growth Slows – reports Bloomberg's Nipa Piboontanasawat and Thomas Abraham

Dec. 1 (Bloomberg) -- China and India lifted controls targeting prices of products from vegetable oil to natural rubber after inflation eased in the world’s fastest-growing major economies.

China today stopped requiring companies to seek approval for some food-price increases, the government said. India dropped a ban on futures trading in natural rubber, soybean oil, potatoes and chickpeas, the consumer affairs ministry said.

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“For China, the main focus of the government is to boost economic growth and prevent deflation,” said Wang Qing, chief China economist at Morgan Stanley in Hong Kong.

In India, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh dropped a seven- month ban on futures trading in natural rubber, soybean oil, potatoes and chickpeas...

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China's Manufacturing Contracts by Record on Exports – reports Bloomberg's Nipa Piboontanasawat

Dec. 1 (Bloomberg) -- China’s manufacturing shrank by the most on record and export orders plunged, adding to evidence that recessions in the U.S., Europe and Japan are dragging down the world’s fastest-growing major economy.

The Purchasing Managers’ Index fell to a seasonally adjusted 38.8 in November from 44.6 in October, the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing said today in an e- mailed statement. A second PMI, released by CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets, also showed a record contraction...

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Following visit Russian leader calls for bigger LATAM role

Russian president Dmitri Medvedev said he was very satisfied with his Latinamerican tour which took him to Peru, Brazil, Venezuela and Cuba because it enabled to re-establish strong links with the region.

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“Latinamerica is a region developing fast, which has a concentration of significant intellectual and natural resources, and most important the peoples of the region want to cooperate with Russia”, added Medvedev

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“We are prepared to increase political, economic and military cooperation with Latinamerican countries and their leaders, particularly in a world with so many security problems and challenges.” ...

Click here to access the full story from Mercopress

Financial crisis... how some South American countries may do better than expected

Six months ago when commodity prices where at record high's it seemed as if South America was entering a golden age of prosperity. Or at least that they where on track. Of course many analysts and “experts” predicted there would be trouble if prices fell back down to reality. None the less, it seemed that surging demand from Asia and the lack of investment in supply capacity throughout the 80's and 90's would be sufficient to keep the prices of various commodities up.

I was personally of the camp which believed prices had come up a bit too fast, but where no less going to stay well above what they where in the late 90's and early 2000's. In the long-run I still believe this will be the case, however the recent global financial has proved me horribly wrong in the short-term.

It does however seem that one thing has been made clear from the recent crisis. At least some of the countries in South America have become better at managing their financial systems and internal economies. Many nations saved, paid off their international debt and invested wisely. Other's didn't and will pay the price (Argentina I mean you).

Here's some recent news worth taking a look at from the past week.

Peru – MTC 2009 budget proposal exceeds $1 billion

Last week Peru's transport and communication minister Veronica Zavala presented congress with a 3.3 billion sol ($1.07) budget proposal. The money according to BNAmerica's will be allocated to various segments of the transport sector. This includes highways, roads, airports, trains and the communication sector.


Peru – Luis Valdivieso, Peru's Minister of Economy and Finances has prepared 49 investment projects aimed to cushion Peru during the financial crisis

Andina.com reports that the Minister of the Economy and finances believes these 49 projects are aimed to keep Peru growing between six and seven percent for the next year.

“We won't allow any reduction in the public spending, consistent with a growth between six and seven percent. To face a possible reduction of fiscal income due to a loss of international markets, if necessary, there is a number of projects ready to fulfill this goal,” stated Luis Valdivieso.


Uruguay confident of weathering financial crisis reports the Financial Times

Interestingly enough, little old Uruguay seems in good position to weather the financial crisis, while it's bigger neighbor, Argentina, does not. The government seems confident that Uruguay can get through this crisis, even if Argentina continues to edge towards economic upheaval, as evident by the countries recent seizure of private pension funds, the governments horrible handling of recent protests and generally scaring away international investors...