Inspenet, August 08, 2023.
Bolivia’s state oil company, Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB), has made a natural gas discovery in the Remanso-X1 well. The new field is expected to generate around $5 billion in gas revenue for the country .
“The well is testing for condensate production (48° API). These results will allow it to be classified as the discoverer of a new hydrocarbon field with estimated resources of 0.7 Tcf and 52 MMbbl of liquids,” said the president of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, Luis Alberto Arce Catacora.
“This discovery opens a new development horizon in the short and medium term, which will allow the incorporation of reserves and increase the production of liquids and thus reduce imports of fuels under the line of import substitution,” said the president of YPFB, Armin Dorgathen Tapia.
The important discovery that benefits Bolivia
On July 7, 2023, activities began in the Okinawa contract area, located in the province of Warnes in the department of Santa Cruz. These tasks included carrying out maintenance on the access roads to the platform and the RMS-X1 well, together with the operational evaluation of the production manager and the taking of logs to analyze the integrity of the well.
Technicians from the state oil company identified positive signs of hydrocarbons in original conditions. Given this situation, teams were mobilized to evaluate the production potential of the RMS-X1 well. Production tests began on August 1 and yielded favorable results, with a production of 45 barrels per day of condensate from the Los Monos formation sandstones.
Samples were taken to determine if the discovery is gas condensate or volatile oil; The results of these tests are making it possible to estimate productivity, characterize the deposit and quantify the volumes produced.
In 1984, YPFB drilled the RMS-X1 well using its equipment, which crossed the Remanso structure. Subsequently, this well was closed, but activities have been carried out in the present administration as part of the Upstream Reactivation Plan.
In addition, the President of Bolivia noted that the Yarará-X2 well traversed the Petaca sand formation with successful results, confirming the continuity of the reservoir and the commercial accumulation of around 1 million barrels of oil equivalent (MMboe) in the Yarará field.
“The Yarará-X2 well, currently undergoing production tests, will increase oil production in the field by more than 700 bpd for the country thanks to the Yarará field,” Arce added.
The operations in the Remanso-x1 well are part of the first series of actions carried out in 29 specific wells of the portfolio of fields that have reached maturity or that were previously closed. These interventions are aimed at revitalizing production and taking advantage of new opportunities.
The “Data Acquisition Service in Mature Fields” project is part of YPFB’s strategic objectives and the Upstream Reactivation Plan, with the aim of carrying out a technical-economic reassessment of each of the projects in mature or closed fields that to reactivate oil and gas wells. In a scenario of geological complexity and heterogeneity of oil fields in a mature field.
The opportunities under development are focused on the reactivation of mature or closed fields producing liquids and gas.
Source: https://www.worldoil.com/news/2023/8/7/bolivia-makes-major-oil-natural-gas-discovery/