Peru has again extended the deadline for bids on a 30 year operating contract for state owned Petromar SA's offshore Block Z-2b.
The tender is key to efforts to privatize Petromar, a subsidiary of state oil company Petroleos del Peru.
The committee charged with implementing Petromar privatization extended the deadline for bids another 70 days Oct. 30, following a 60 day extension made in September. The latest deadline for bids is Feb. 10, with the contract expected to be awarded Feb. 26.
A bid package on Block Z-2b is available from Petroperu's Lima headquarters for $20,000.
Petromar operates the former Belco Petroleum Corp. offshore assets Peru's government expropriated in 1985. It currently produces 17,600 b/d, compared with 27,000 b/d at the time of expropriation.
Meanwhile, Petroperu has issued a tender to private foreign and domestic companies to undertake a service contract to produce oil and gas from its Block VII on Peru's northern coast. The 45,000 acre block, 12 km south of Talara, covers the Negritos area containing some of Peru's oldest oil fields, including the former International Petroleum Co. (IPC) La Drea concession.
IPC's Peruvian operations were expropriated by the Velasco military government in 1968. Bid documents are for sale at Petroperu headquarters. Final bids are due Mar. 19, 1993.
PETROMAR EXTENSION
The Petromar privatization committee extended the bid deadline because the government still is unable to complete an agreement with American International Group (AIG), a New York insurance group seeking compensation for a settlement paid to Belco parent Enron Corp. related to the expropriation (OGJ, Oct. 19, p. 47).
A Dec. 17, 1991, preliminary agreement for $184.8 million to be paid in 7 years has been stymied by Peru's failure to raise a bank guarantee acceptable to AIG. The government hopes to arrange within the next month a guarantee acceptable to AIG from the Andean Development Fund.
Peruvian Finance Minister Carlos Bolona last month in Washington, D.C., recommended to AIG that if the guarantee still were not forthcoming, the two parties could revert to a previous formula under which AIG and Enron would seek an operator for the Petromar area. Under this approach, the operating company would pay AIG and Enron directly from a share of oil production.
At presstime last week, AIG had not responded to Bolona's proposal.
The Petromar privatization committee is using the extra time from the deadline extension to stimulate interest in the tender from other companies.
Occidental Petroleum Corp., which produces more than half of Peru's 120,000 b/d of crude, picked up bid documents in October, as have Hallwood Energy International, Denver, and Petrotech SA, a unit of McAllister Co., New York. Olympic Oil & Gas Co., Houston, and Clayton Williams Co., Midland, Tex., also have expressed interest in taking over Petromar operations.
Copyright 1992 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.
