Bolivia makes major oil, natural gas discovery

(WO) – Bolivia’s state-run oil company Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB) made a natural gas discovery at the Remanso-X1 well. The new reservoir will generate approximately $5 billion in gas revenue for the country.

“The well is undergoing condensate production tests (48° API). These results will allow it to be classified as the discoverer of a new hydrocarbon field with resources estimated at 0.7 Tcf and 52 MMbbl of liquids," said the president of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, Luis Alberto Arce Catacora.

"This discovery opens up a new development horizon in the short and medium term, which will make it possible to incorporate reserves and increase the production of liquids and thus reduce imports of fuels under the line of the import substitution”, stated the president of YPFB, Armin Dorgathen Tapia.

On July 7, 2023, operations began in the Okinawa contract area, located in the Warnes province of the Santa Cruz department. The activities included the maintenance of roads to enter the slab and access the RMS-X1 well, as well as the operational qualification of the production head and the taking of records in order to assess the integrity of the well.

Technicians from the state oil company found positive indications of the presence of hydrocarbons with original conditions. Given this scenario, teams were mobilized to evaluate the productive potential of the RMS-X1 well. Production tests have been carried out since Aug. 1 with positive results, registering a condensate production of 45 bpd in the sandstones of the Los Monos formation.

Samples have been taken to assess whether the discovery is a gas condensate or a volatile oil; the test results are making it possible to estimate productivity, characterize the reservoir and quantify volumes produced.

The RMS-X1 well was drilled in 1984 with YPFB equipment and went through the Remanso structure. The well was closed, and operations were carried out during the present management within the framework of the Upstream Reactivation Plan.

Likewise, the President of Bolivia indicated that the Yarará-X2 well traversed the Petaca sand with successful results and confirmed the continuity of the reservoir and the commercial accumulation of approximately 1 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," added Arce.

The activities in the Remanso-x1 well are carried out within the framework of the first campaign of interventions in 29 wells selected from the portfolio of mature or closed fields, with opportunities to reactivate production.

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 fields or closed that allow reactivating oil and gas wells in a scenario of geological complexity and heterogeneity of oil deposits in a mature field.

The opportunities under development are focused on the reactivation of mature or closed fields producing liquids and gas.