Saturday, February 22, 2025

Latin America News

Guyana will soon sign a oil deal with TotalEnergies led group

Energy Minister Vickram Bharrat said that Guyana is expecting to sign a production-sharing agreement soon with a French consortium led by TotalEnergies, which will allow the country to explore an off-shore area. Guyana, the fastest-growing oil producing country in the world, is on track to produce 940,000 barrels of crude oil per day this coming year. This is nearly 1% more than last year's output. All of Guyana's crude oil is produced by a consortium led the U.S.

Woodside and Trinidad have agreed to initial commercial terms for deepwater natural gas, an executive says

According to three sources with knowledge of the discussions, a Woodside executive and a Trinidad and Tobago government official have agreed on an initial commercial agreement for the development of Woodside's Calypso gas deepwater discoveries. This brings the project closer to the final investment decision. In order to fully utilize its gas processing capability, the Caribbean country is Latin America's biggest LNG exporter.

Russell: China's impact on US energy trade is minimal at first.

China responded to the tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump with its own measures, effectively killing off trade between the United States in crude oil and liquefied gas as well as coal. China, which is the largest importer of these three commodities in the world, imposed import duties on Tuesday of 15% for U.S. coal and LNG, and 10% for crude oil and farm machinery. Beijing made its…

Petrobras Q4 total production down 10.5%; sales and exports are also down

Petrobras, the state-owned oil company in Brazil, reported a 10.5% drop in its fourth-quarter total oil and gas production compared to a year ago. Sales and exports were also down. Petrobras, Latin America’s largest oil company, reported a total oil and natural gas production of 2,63 million barrels equivalents per day (boed), for the three months ending in December. Total sales of oil and gas…

Data shows that Europe consumed almost all US LNG exported last month.

The preliminary data of financial firm LSEG shows that U.S. LNG exports to Europe jumped by a significant amount in January, as the cold weather drove demand up and prices for super-chilled gas increased. The total exports for the month of 8.46 million metric tons (MT) to all countries reached nearly nine out of ten cargoes. According to LSEG, this is only slightly less than the monthly record of 8,6 MT set in December 2023.

Goldman Sachs: Trump's tariffs will have a limited impact on oil and gas prices

Goldman Sachs stated in a Sunday note that the new tariffs placed by U.S. president Donald Trump on imports coming from Canada, Mexico and China will likely have a limited impact on oil and gas prices globally. The bank stated that the potential tariff-driven decrease in U.S. Natural Gas imports from Canada was too small to have a significant impact on U.S. Natural Gas prices. Prices of oil and gas jumped Monday following Trump's tariffs.

Trinidad and Tobago auctions 26 deepwater oil and natural gas blocks at the largest ever auction

Official notices state that Trinidad and Tobago offered 26 offshore oil and natural gas blocks on Tuesday in its largest ever auction of deepwater exploration and production areas. In order to fully utilize its gas processing capability, the twin-island Caribbean nation, Latin America's biggest exporter of LNG, is pressing producers, particularly those offshore, to increase natural gas production.

Guyana exports 225 crude cargoes by 2024

Guyana will export 225 cargoes in crude oil by 2024, said its energy minister on Tuesday. A consortium led the U.S. giant Exxon Mobil has been ramping up its production and updating its facilities. Last year, Latin America's new oil producer became the fifth largest crude oil exporter in the region, after Brazil, Mexico and Venezuela. It was also identified as a major contributor to the global growth of oil supplies.

Eletrobras Santo Antonio Power Plant bounces back after Brazil's historic drought

Santo Antonio is one of Brazil's biggest hydroelectric plants. Its head said that the plant had survived an extreme drought. He credited the plant's resilience with a series of measures which kept it running, even at record low water levels. According to the Brazilian geological service, Santo Antonio on Amazon's Madeira River was forced to temporarily stop operations in 2023 due to drought, which lowered water levels to an all-time low of 1.1 meters (3.6 feet).

Fourth oil production vessel to leave Guyana in Q1 of 2025

The CEO of U.S. oil producer Hess John Hess stated on Wednesday that Guyana's fourth floating production, storage and offloading facility (FPSO) is expected to depart the South American nation in the first quarter of next year. Yellowtail, the fourth project of the firm that is responsible for the oil and gas production throughout South America, will add an additional 250,000 barrels a day (bpd).

Petrobras of Brazil presents a five-year business plan worth $111 billion, with $10 billion in additional dividends

According to a Securities filing, the Brazilian state-run company Petrobras announced Monday that it had proposed a $111 billion plan to its board for 2025-2029. The filing stated that the business plan allows ordinary dividends starting at $45 Billion for the period and up to $10 Billion in extraordinary dividends. The proposed plan is about $9 billion more than the previous plan, which was for 2024-2028.

S&P expects cautious economic policies in Mexico and possible US trade challenges

S&P Global Ratings stated on Tuesday that it expects Mexico will continue to maintain a cautious macroeconomic policy over the next two years. It also warned of possible challenges for Latin America's largest economy including trade with the United States. Joydeep Mukherji, Managing Director of Sovereign Ratings, stated that the trade relationship between Mexico & the United States is at…

The Colombian Ministry of Energy says nine companies are interested in the offshore wind project

The Colombian energy ministry announced on Tuesday that seven foreign companies and two local ones had expressed interest in a project to build offshore wind farms and expected to receive formal bids by the first half of 2025. According to the ministry, these companies include Colombian state oil company Ecopetrol, power firm Celsia and Spain's BlueFloat Energy. They also include Denmark's Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and DEME from Belgium…

Eletrobras and Ocean Winds have agreed to evaluate offshore wind projects in Brazil

The Brazilian power company Eletrobras signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Ocean Winds on Tuesday to study the development and deployment of offshore wind farms. In the future, offshore wind farms will be a key technology for generating large amounts of renewable energy in Brazil. The world's sixth-largest producer of onshore energy, in terms of capacity, does not have any offshore farms because it lacks a regulatory framework to support these projects.

Sources say that Brazil is aiming to attract foreign investment through a green development platform.

Brazil will launch a new platform on Wednesday to attract more foreign investment into sustainable development. The platform will highlight $8 billion worth of promising private sector projects, and look to triple this portfolio within a year. Four Brazilian officials who spoke anonymously about the program before a Washington launch event, held on the sidelines the meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank…

Saudi Aramco CEO calls on a reset in energy policies for developing countries

The head of Saudi Aramco, who called for a reset to policies in developing countries, said that progress in Asia's energy transition is slower, less equitable, and more complex than many had expected. Aramco CEO Amin Nasser said that even with the transition as economies expand and standards of living rise, the Global South will likely see significant growth in the oil demand for a very long time. While this growth will eventually stop, it is likely that a plateau is to follow.

Petrobras signss agreement to supply Vale fuel with renewable content

Petrobras and Vale have agreed to sell Vale diesel containing renewable content. The two Brazilian giants announced the agreement on Friday. The agreement represents a concrete step by Vale in decarbonizing its operations. It also marks a victory for Petrobras, the state-owned oil company that is working to create a market for its sustainable fuels. Petrobras and Vale, two of Latin America’s largest companies in terms of market value, are both owned by Petrobras.

The stability council of Mexico says that the financial system in Mexico is robust and stable.

The Mexican Financial Stability Council believes that Latin America's number one economy's financial system is strong and resilient. According to a statement from the central bank on Friday, Mexico's No. 2 economy is resilient and solid, despite global growth being expected to be slightly lower than last year. The Council said that the Mexican banking industry's capital and liquid levels "far exceeded" regulatory minimums…

Petrobras, Brazil's natural gas company, will pump gas from a reopened offshore oil well

Petrobras, the Brazilian oil giant, is planning to reopen an oil well that was closed in its offshore Roncador oil field to obtain natural gas quickly. This decision was made by the company's CEO on Thursday. Magda Chambriard, the Chief Executive of Magda Energy, told reporters that the well located northeast of Rio de Janeiro could begin producing as soon as next year. It would supply approximately 1.7 million cubic metres per day when it is brought on line, she said.

Zelestra, a Spanish company, opens a $200 million solar park for Colombia

As part of their expansion into Latin America, the Spanish renewable energy company Zelestra opened on Friday its first solar farm in Colombia. The park is worth $200 million, and it will generate 144 Megawatts of power. The solar park can be found near Monteria, the capital of Colombia’s Cordoba Province. The Colombian government is working to reduce the dependence of the country on fossil fuels and coal, and to move it towards renewable energy.

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