Hydrocarbons: challenges in Peru from a technical perspective

Investigate seismic in talara

Víctor Sanz Parra, UNI Senior Lecturer

There is not a single oil company in the world that can work without seismic. The works that have been done in Tumbes are showing us excellent geological structures, and Perupetro should be the first to study how this issue of seismic is going to be solved. The future of fields like Talara could be in the deepest part and Tumbes wields tremendous potential. In the case of Camisea, for example, further exploration should be required, since they are structures that still have oil and gas inside. It is not just about exploding, you have to talk to Pluspetrol.

Inaction leads to crisis

Eleodoro Mayorga, former Minister of the Minem

We have all the knowledge, potential and entrepreneurial capacity, as in the case of Petroperú. What we lack is a decision from above, someone who says “we are going to give priority to this industry” and mobilizes the sector. Inaction leads us to crisis. In 2018, 6 billion dollars were imported, if you divide that into days it is 60 million dollars a day that we are gathering to buy hydrocarbons abroad, when we can produce them here. That should be invested in promoting the industry here, we have a perception problem that, in the long run, is very expensive for us.

convince to explore

Victor Lay, Occidental consultant

It is the government that must handle the situation. Companies are not very interested in exploring and hydrocarbon substitutes are going to take a long time to arrive. We have for 30 years, at least, consuming Petroleum. There is a market to satisfy and exploration is a high risk industry. Strengthen Petroperú, Perupetro and the institutes to form technological teams, and then business teams to take charge of the business to convince small or medium-sized companies. Also doing new geochemistry studies, the ones we have are very old.

Work with the community

Rigoberto Rojas, Oil & Gas consultant

The law of hydrocarbons The regulations have been in place since the 90s since 2004. Until now, these regulations have been used to manage activities in Peru. However, from now on there have been other provisions that have made it more complex, such as environmental and safety laws, which has led to an excessive complexity in the management of hydrocarbon operations. To this must be added the communities, whose needs have changed and now their cities are more developed thanks to industry. There must be a strategic plan to work with them.