Pluspetrol ups Camisea reserves to 379Bm3

Argentine company Pluspetrol has raised proven reserves at blocks 88 and 56 of Peru's Camisea gas project to 13.4Tf3 (379Bm3) from 10.9Tf3, the latter country's energy and mines ministry said in a statement.

Pluspetrol is part of Consorcio Camisea and owns the project's gas extraction component. Peruvian firms TGP and Cálidda hold the respective transport and distribution components.

The Argentine company justified the new figure due to 3D seismic reprocessing and interpretation work and the analysis of new information obtained from five development wells in the San Martín deposit, the statement said.

Block 88's proven reserves stand at 10.4Tf3 and block 56's at 3Tf3.

Of the 13.4Tf3, 6.1Tf3 will go to supply local demand through 2028, specifically power plants (3.25Tf3), petrochemicals (1.46Tf3), industry (1.1Tf3), vehicles (0.2Tf3) and homes (0.1Tf3).

Another 4.2Tf3 will go to Peru LNG consortium's US$3.9bn LNG export project.

The local demand figure is based on a scenario of a power generation mix made up of natural gas and hydroelectric plants and average power demand growth of 6.5% a year in the long term, the statement said.

Natural gas output in the first 11 months of last year totaled 85.3Bf3, up 49.8% from January-November 2006, state hydrocarbons promotion agency Perupetro said previously.

Peru's power sector used 1.718Bm3 of natural gas from January-November 2007 to produce 6.61TWh, the ministry said in its latest power sector statistics report.

Electricity generated from gas-fired plants represented 27% of all power produced in the 11-month period.

These plants accounted for 71% of the country's total gas consumption in the 11-month period, specifically Ventanilla (21%), Chilca 1 (19%), Aguaytia (15%), Malacas (8%), Santa Rosa (5%) and Kallpa (3%).

The remainder of the country's available gas in the first 11 months of last year was used by industry and the transport and residential sectors.

Gas-fired generation in November rose 69% compared to the year-ago month, while hydro, diesel and coal dipped 6%, 32.5% and 3.6% respectively. In November, 63.9% of power came from hydro followed by natural gas (31.8%), coal (3%) and diesel (1.3%).

Natural gas consumption for generation in November rose 59.9% to 189Mm3 compared to the same month last year.

In related news, Pluspetrol reported it will take its Malvinas gas-liquids separation plant offline January 7-12 to carry out interconnection work as part of an ongoing Camisea expansion to double liquids production in the second half of this year.

The plant interruption will not affect gas supplies to vehicles and homes, according to the company.

Publication: Business News Americas - English News
Provider: Business News Americas
Date: January 4, 2008