Belorusneft to go for another seismic survey project in Ecuador

The Ecuadorian branch of the Belarusian industrial group Belorusneft plans to implement another major seismic exploration project, representatives of the company told BelTA.

The company has signed the contract to carry out a 3D seismic exploration on an area of 2,000km2 in Ecuador’s east in 2015. The technical and geological analysis of the area is now in progress. In order to comprehend the scale of the project, one has to remember that every year only about 170km2 of lands is surveyed in Belarus in the course of finding new oil fields.

Belorusneft signed the first contract to perform 3D seismic exploration on an area of 1,500km2 in Ecuador in 2013. The project’s implementation proceeds on schedule and is to end in mid-2015. Field work is in progress in the rain forest of the Amazon River and in tropical jungle.

Ecuador is also ready to cooperate with Belarus in the introduction of methods to recover more oil from mature oil fields. A team of the Belarusian oil industry institute BelNIPIneft and Belorusneft specialists has prepared a project proposal and feasibility study to use secondary and tertiary methods to enhance oil recovery at the existing oil field Armadillo. Negotiations with the Ecuadorian service and engineering company Edinpetrol have been held. The company has confirmed it is ready to use external financing to implement promising plans.

At the same time Belorusneft is putting efforts into its accreditation as a provider of services for the Ecuadorian state company Petroamazonas. The necessary procedures in the area of survey exploration and development of oil fields will be completed soon. Belorusneft has signed a trilateral agreement with Petroamazonas and the Chilean company ENAP to create a consortium for the joint surveying and development of the 28th district in Ecuador’s southwest. The sides have determined the model and forms of cooperation, have agreed the main juridical, financial, and manufacturing aspects of cooperation. The contract envisages four years for surveying and 20 years for exploring and exploiting the oil field provided commercial reserves are found.

The Belarusian industrial group Belorusneft was founded in 1966. The company specializes in the surveying, prospecting and development of oil fields, well drilling, oil and associated petroleum gas extraction in Belarus and a number of other countries, including Russia, Ukraine, and Venezuela.