Alyonca is investing $16 million in the rehabilitation of wells and is preparing to start oil production in Alta Verapaz, Guatemala.
The oil field from which the company will produce is in the Municipality of Fray Bartolome de las Casas, and the plans of the company are to attend the local industry and, in the future, make a new investment to refine the product that is extracted.
The Guatemalan government has finally approved the contracting model and promises to launch the bidding process within the next four months.
At the end of 2016 the Ministry of Energy and Mines announced that it was beginning to prepare, at that time, a plan to call a new tenderand grant a concession for the operation of the pipeline, currently in the hands of Perenco, to a new company. Due to delays in the process, in February last year the contract with Perenco was extended for 18 months, meaning that August would be the deadline for the new launch.
The companies GX Technology Corporation, Spectrum Geo Inc. and Geoex will be carrying out geophysical studies to determine the existence of possible oil and natural gas reserves.
Anpanama.com reported that the Cabinet approved the contracts authorizing the three aforementioned companies only to conduct research offshore, 15 kilometers from the coast and not on land.
During 2016 the ten active oil fields produced a daily average of 8,976 barrels, below the 2015 average of 10,000 barrels per day.
Last year total production was 3,285,442 barrels, 10% less than the 3,664,279 barrels produced in 2015.
"... According to the expert Arturo Letona, for over two years no investments in developing new fields have been observed and in the short term it is not expected that there will be a context of rising oil prices on the international market. Letona said that the message for investors with the decisions taken by the Constitutional Court (CC) is one of uncertainty."
The decision of the I Chamber to annul the judgment that prevented the signing of contracts without environmental studies has refloated the possibility of the contract with the American Mallon Oil Company being valid.
In the year 2000 the government of Costa Rica signed with US oil company Mallon Oil Company a contract to explore and develop natural gas and oil in six blocks of territory without the prior existence of an environmental impact study, an exception allowed by decree 26,750 of 1998.
After the expiration of the concession currently held by Perenco, a tender is to be launched for the operation of a pipeline connecting the Xan field in Peten with the oil terminal in Piedras Negras.
Elperiodico.com.gt reports that "...Vice President Jafeth Cabrera, after a meeting in Puerto Barrrios, Izabal, said the contract with Perenco which expires next year will be extended by no longer than six months in order to realise the tender."
The results of the examination carried out so far by the Norwegian company Statoil indicate the existence of "interesting geological structures that may contain oil."
Elnuevodiario.com.ni reports that "...Preliminary results of the first stage of research were presented on Tuesday by Statoil to authorities of the state-owned company Empresa Nicaragüense de Petroleos (Petronic), the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM), the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (Marena), and Enel."
The Canadian company Union Oil & Gas Group has announced that an agreement signed with the Ortega administration will allow them to carry out exploration works in the Sandino Basin in the Pacific.
This agreement is added to the four signed in June last year with Statoil for exploration and extraction works in a total area of 16 thousand square kilometers, also in the Pacific.
The decline in international oil prices is already affecting companies that exploit the resource in the country, meanwhile, contracts awarded in 2014 have not yet been signed.
Authorities at the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM) and the companies that received concessions to explore and exploit oil in the country predict a significant decline in investment in the sector this year, due to the downward trend in oil prices in the international market. This year it is expected that three contracts that were awarded in 2014 will be signed, and also "... the possibility of an oil tender has arisen, for which several blocks in Alta Verapaz and Peten have been earmarked."
After the signing of a contract between the government of Nicaragua and a norwegian company to explore for hydrocarbons, Costa Rica has noted that the award was made on disputed maritime areas in the International Court of Justice.
An article in Nacion.com reports that "... Foreign Minister Manuel Gonzalez said he prepared the letter to the company that received the rights to explore and exploit hydrocarbons in the Pacific coast, in an area that lacks clear boundaries between the Costa Rican and Nicaraguan territory."
The adoption of the amendments to the hydrocarbon law provides for the participation of the state run company Petronic in exploration activities and the ability to partner with other companies engaged in the activity.
The amended law authorizes Empresa Nicaragüense de Petróleo (Petronic) to represent the State in the exploration and exploitation of oil and "... make 'associations and partnerships with companies who come to explore and exploit hydrocarbons.'"
The government has signed memorandums of understanding with the British Geoex and Norway's Statoil, to carry out studies and activities in re-exploration and exploration of gas-oil in the Pacific.
The agreement signed with the Norwegian state run company Statoil focuses on the development of a study for exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbon potential in the Nicaraguan Pacific, while the one signed with Geoex, allows for a study of surface reconnaissance around the Pacific Nicaragua, about 32 thousand square kilometers of water and about 9 thousand kilometers in line for the complete study which will allow Statoil to start exploration activities.
A proposal has been made to amend the Special Law on Exploration and Exploitation of Hydrocarbons in order to further extend search deadlines from 5 to 10 years for the operating period and from 1 to 6 years for exploration.
In order to provide longer time frames for exploration and mining stages, the President has sent to the National Assembly a proposal to reform the Special Law on Exploration and Exploitation of Hydrocarbons.
While renegotiations are carried out on a loan to build an oil refinery, President Solis has issued a decree extending the moratorium on oil exploration and production until 2021.
While the private sector mourns the loss of competitiveness caused by the high cost of electricity and the lack of proposals to solve the power supply problem affecting the country, the government has decided to extend for six years a ban on all types of oil industry in the country, citing lack of information on the effects of the activity on the environment.