Published On:July 9 2008
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RIL to explore oil in Andean country
Mumbai: Reliance Industries (RIL) has signed an agreement with Peru's Perupetro to jointly explore for oil and gas in the Andean country,Cesar Gutirrez ,president of Peru's state-run firm, said.
'We'll be formalising the agreements reached in these past weeks. Also, in the coming days we will provide details of the joint exploration venture which focusses on areas that hold oil and gas potential,' Cesar Gutierrez told Peru's official Andina news agency yesterday.
The two firms are likely to bid in a Peruvian government auction of 22 oil ‘blocks' with hydrocarbon potential, he said, adding that the auction was scheduled to open in September.
Earlier this year, Reliance acquired a 90 per cent stake in an oil block in the region of Puno in Peru from Irish company Pan Andean Resources.
Reliance Industries CEO and President (Oil and Gas) P M S Prasad had told PTI on April 30 that his company had signed an agreement to take 90 per cent in block 141. Pan Andean will hold the remaining 10 per cent in the block.
Gutierrez said Reliance had an aggressive expansion plan in Peru, which it believes holds great potential in hydrocarbon deposits.
As part of the deal with Pan Andean, Reliance will incur all exploration costs through commercial discovery. Following a commercial find of an agreed size, Pan Andean will reimburse Reliance for its share of the exploration cost.
Prasad had stated that Reliance was looking at oil blocks in Latin America's particularly heavy oil belt.
In the Peru block, drilling and other work may exceed $40 million in expenditure.