Andean News

A promising area off Colombia's coast where Brazil state-run Petrobras is drilling this year could justify a large project to supply natural gas to the Andean country and for exports, Petrobras' head of exploration and production said on Wednesday.As oil production in Brazil's prolific presalt region is set to plateau in coming years, Petrobras is expanding its horizons to new frontiers including the Equatorial Margin, Colombia and Africa.At Colombia's Tayrona block, Petrobras…

Insecurity in Ecuador is hurting the Andean country's exports of products like bananas and shrimp, an exporters association said, amid assaults on shipping containers and contamination of shipments with drugs.At least 63 people linked to exports of bananas, shrimp and cacao - the raw material used to make chocolate - were murdered by organized criminal groups in 2022, while another 1,500 have been injured during attacks, the Corporation of Ecuadorean Exporter Associations (Cordex) said.The three sectors…

Peru's environmental regulatory agency said on Wednesday it was investigating the possibility that Spanish energy company Repsol SA was responsible for a second oil spill in as many weeks off the country's central Pacific coast.The suspected new spill may have occurred on Tuesday as Repsol's La Pampilla refinery was withdrawing oil reception and dispatch equipment as part of an investigation into what caused the initial spill blamed on unusually strong waves triggered by a volcanic eruption in Tonga this month, according to the Agency for Environmental Assessment and Enforcement (OEFA).The age

Ecuador's armed forces said on Tuesday that dozens of vessels from a predominantly Chinese fishing fleet that is operating near the Galapagos Islands have turned off tracking systems to prevent monitoring of their activities.Of around 325 ships still fishing in the waters near the ecologically sensitive Galapagos, 149 have at some point in recent months cut off communications, Navy Commander, Rear Admiral Darwin Jarrin told reporters.Some had also changed the vessels' names to avoid supervision, he said."In this period, 149 ships have turned off their satellite systems ...

Last July 6, Major General Manuel Quevedo joined his wife, a Catholic priest and a gathering of oil workers in prayer in a conference room at the headquarters of Petroleos de Venezuela SA, or PDVSA.The career military officer, who for the past year has been boss at the troubled state-owned oil company, was at no ordinary mass. The gathering, rather, was a ceremony at which he and other senior oil ministry officials asked God to boost oil output."This place of peace and spirituality…

Rescue workers searched on Monday for 13 people believed to be missing after a tourist boat sank the previous day in a reservoir in north-central Colombia, killing seven. The cause of the accident was still unclear, officials said. Use of the Penol-Guatape reservoir, a popular site for water-sports and tours, was restricted as the search continued. The boat, El Almirante, was carrying about 150 passengers, officials said. Reports of the dead and missing have varied since the accident on Sunday afternoon. Authorities had initially said more than 170 people were onboard. "We have seven dead and 13 disappeared," Carlos Ivan Marquez, the head of the national disaster relief agency told journalists. Three people previously thought missing have contacted authorities, he added.

Ecuador has paid $112 million to energy company Chevron Corp over a four-decade-old contract dispute, even though it remains in disagreement, the head of the central bank has said. A Hague arbitration court awarded the U.S. company $96 million in 2011 in a dispute stemming from a 1973 deal that called for Texaco, later acquired by Chevron, to develop fields in exchange for selling oil to Ecuador at below-market rates. Various appeals by Ecuador against the ruling failed. "We have today paid around $112 million," the central bank head Diego Martinez told a local radio station late on Friday. That amount represented the award plus interest. "We don't agree with how these international mechanisms work ...

The Port of Savannah is now handling grapes imported from Peru, adding to the list of cold-treated perishables using Savannah as a port of entry. "Savannah currently handles avocados, citrus and sweet onions from Peru," said Georgia Ports Authority Executive Director Curtis Foltz. The grapes, moved from Andean Sun Produce farms in Ica and Piura, Peru, are part of a U.S. Department of Agriculture program, in which citrus, grapes and blueberries are chilled for at least 17 days prior to entry into the U.S. Removing potential pests via cold treatment reduces the need for pesticides. "By landing produce in Savannah, buyers can take advantage of much shorter and faster overland transportation to Atlanta and other major markets across the U.S. Southeast," Foltz said.

The United States imported a 272,000-barrel cargo of Bolivian condensate bought by trading firm Trafigura last week after more favorable crude spreads prompted larger purchases of foreign oil last month, according to traders and ThomsonReuters data. Refining and trading companies in the United States turned to crude and condensate imports in February to find cheap oil after the arbitrage opened as a result of an inversion in the spread between benchmark U.S. crude oil prices and Brent. Purchases of African crudes increased to 11.66 million barrels in February, the highest volume since October including Nigerian condensate, according to the same data. Most crudes arriving were light and sweet, competing with U.S. grades.

The hulking backhoe dredges up rocks and silt from the shallows of the muddy Magdalena River in the first laborious step to transform the waterway into an engine of economic growth. The excavation along a verdant stretch near Barrancabermeja, an inland oil and coal hub, is part of a $600 million government bid to reclaim the river, once Colombia's primary transport route. By clearing logjams, the aim is to allow big cargo barges to steam up 900 km (560 miles) from the Caribbean coast to Puerto Salgar, close to the capital Bogota.

A dockworkers strike at Peru's biggest port, Callao, has hit imports of basic goods in the Andean country and will likely stoke inflation, the main exporters association said Monday. The 18-day strike has nearly frozen activities at the northern terminal of Callao at the edge of the capital Lima, prompting $100 million in lost revenues for merchants, the Exporters Association of Peru (Adex) said. Some 26 ships are waiting to be unloaded and serviced and another 10 are expected to arrive this week, Adex said.

The government has granted Chinese-owned Jinzhao Mining Peru the environmental permit for its proposed $1.5 billion Pampa de Pongo iron mine, estimated to produce 22.5 million tonnes per year. The energy and mines ministry said in a statement on Friday that it had also approved the company's environmental plan for a nearby $340 million port terminal that will store and ship its iron concentrates. The open-pit mine, scheduled to be productive for 33 years, will become Peru's biggest iron mine. Shougang Hierro Peru, a unit of China's Shougang Group and the only other major iron mine in the Andean country, produced 6.7 million tonnes of iron in 2013. Jinzhao is owned by China's Nanjinzhao Group Co. (Reporting by Mitra Taj; Editing by Grant McCool)

Colombia awarded a 2.5 trillion peso ($1.33 billion) contract to a consortium led by Brazil's Odebrecht SA on Friday to improve navigability on the Magdalena River, which the Andean nation has long planned to exploit for cargo transport. Odebrecht will have an 87 percent stake in the joint venture, called Navelena. Navelena was was the only bidder for the contract, which covers a 908 km (564 mile) stretch of the Magdalena, which flows north to the country's Caribbean coast from the southern interior. Colombian construction firm Valorcon holds the remaining stake in the joint venture, Odebrecht said in a statement. The project, focused on building navigation channels in shallower stretches…

Oil companies were bidding on Wednesday for 95 oil areas Colombia is offering for exploration and production in an effort to raise output from around 1 million barrels per day and increase stagnant reserves. Rights for the onshore, offshore and nonconventional or shale oil areas will be awarded to bidders who offer the largest share of production to the government or based on how much companies commit to invest in lesser-explored regions. The government said earlier this year it hoped to attract $2.6 billion in investment into the oil sector through the so-called Colombia Round 2014. Colombia's last oil auction took place in 2012. The blocks on offer total more than 22 million hectares.

Chile president Michelle Bachelet said on Friday her center-left government was planning the development of a "big scale" port in the center of the copper-exporting country. Bachelet also estimated about $1 billion would be allocated to foster innovation in the Andean country over the next four years as she presented a batch of pro-growth plans on Friday. Previously red-hot economic growth in world No.1 copper producer Chile is slowing on the back of softer investment and domestic demand, creating a headache for the new president. "We have a major challenge, the challenge of growing at a good rhythm while at the same time increasing our productivity, being more competitive, diversifying our economy and becoming less vulnerable to global volatility," she said.

Colombia's state-run Ecopetrol launched a tender to buy a 68,000-70,000 barrel cargo of ultra low-sulfur diesel (ULSD) and a 91,000-95,000 barrel cargo combining ULSD and gasoline, according to a document seen by Reuters on Wednesday. The shutdown of a key pipeline in Colombia since March has affected the oil company and other producers in the Andean country. Exports of medium Vasconia crude have declined in recent weeks, according to traders. The company said in the invitation that it will receive the cargoes in the U.S. Gulf Coast or in the Buenaventura port in Colombia from May 27 to June 16. The combined cargo must contain 68,000-70,000 barrels of ULSD and 23,000-25,000 barrels of gasoline RON 92, it added.

Colombia's oil reserves had risen 2.9 percent to 2.445 billion barrels by the end of 2013, up from 2.38 billion barrels a year earlier, taking reserves to their highest despite a missed exploration target, the energy ministry said on Monday. Foreign investment into the Andean nation's oil and gas sector has surged in recent years and the government is preparing to tap non-conventional or shale resources offering such blocks in its 2014 oil auction which concludes in July. Though security has improved massively in the last 10 years due to increased military pressure on the leftist FARC and ELN guerrilla groups, the rebels have intensified bomb attacks on oil pipelines, with 259 attacks in 2013 alone, the oil industry association said.

Peru awarded a $182.4 million contract for the construction and operation of a maritime port to a consortium of Brazilian and Spanish companies, the government said on Wednesday. Consorcio Paracas beat out two other bidders on the project, including a local unit of APM Terminals, owned by the Maersk Group, state investment agency Proinversion said. The winning consortium was formed by Spain's Servinoga and Brazilian companies Pattac Empreendimentos e Participacoes, Tucumán Engenharia e Empreendimentos and Fortesolo Servicios Integrados. The terminal port near Peru's southern coastal city of Pisco, which the consortium will manage through a 30-year concession, is expected to speed up mineral shipments from the Andean country's southern mines.

A barge carrying construction materials for U.S.-based Drummond Co Inc, Colombia's second biggest coal miner, was shipwrecked at the company's port late last week, the company said on Sunday, causing leakage of some diesel fuel into the sea. Drummond only recently reopened the port in northern Colombia after the government had shut down operations until the miner completed an upgrade to meet new environmental legislation. It missed the January deadline for finishing work. RCN Radio said the vessel was carrying 60 gallons (227 liters) of diesel oil. A Drummond statement confirmed the incident and said the crew was rescued but did not mention the amount of fuel that leaked into the sea.

GasAtacama, energy provider to metal producers in Chile's Atacama desert, has lined up eight potential U.S. natural gas suppliers for a proposed import terminal on its Pacific Coast, but uncertainty about energy demand has delayed deals, CEO Rudolf Araneda told Reuters on Thursday. GasAtacama plans to build a $350 million offshore liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal that would take shipments of the fuel to help create 500 megawatts of electricity for power-hungry miners in the mineral-rich north.

In an event that gathered the main regional authorities, Angel Cabrera, president of Chilean port company Empresa Portuaria Iquique (EPI) -Iquique’s port authority-, and Alfredo Leiton, general manager, launched the terminal 1 tender process officially. The regional governmental representative, Luz Ebensperger, was also present, along with other local authorities, such as the mayor of Iquique, Jorge Soria, the regional ministry secretary of transport and telecommunications Carlos Navarrete…

Reuters - A unit in Colombia of Toronto-based oil firm Pacific Rubiales launched a tender to sell two 1-million-barrel cargoes of heavy Castilla crude for delivery in April, according to an invitation seen by Reuters on Monday. Pacific sold to Norway's Statoil one 500,000-barrel cargo of Colombian Vasconia medium crude earlier this month and offered on the open market a cargo of Castilla crude that will be delivered at the end of March. The first Castilla cargo being offered this time will be loaded at Covenas port between April 1 and April 15 and the second one will be delivered in the second half of the month. Bidders should submit offers indexed to WTI or Brent front month prices until March 4, the company said.

Representatives from the multilateral institutions financing the Panama Canal Expansion Program visited today the new locks project construction in the Pacific side as part of their regularly scheduled visits. Experts from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the European Investment Bank (EIB), Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), International Financing Corporation (IFC) and the Andean Development Corporation (CAF) participated in meetings for two days and visited the Expansion Program construction site. ACP executives made a comprehensive presentation of the current status of the project, including details of the work stoppage by Grupo Unidos por el Canal, S.A. (GUPC), the new locks project contractor.