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Oil price

Oil is rising toward the year end as Chinese authorities lifted the need for visitors to be vaccinated on arrival at the mainland. And retail gasoline continues to fall in the US, last week a gallon of Exxon’s finest on average would cost you only $3.091 down 2.9c w/w, off 44c (!) m/m and down 18.4c y/y.

PetroTal Corp

PetroTal has announce the successful testing results of well 12H, the Company’s fourteenth producing well at the Bretana oil field.

Well 12H highlights

• Well 12H has tested naturally, off pump, at approximately 2,900 barrels of oil per day (“bopd”) over its first 10 days of production since December 16, 2022;
• Current production of well 12H, under natural flow, has increased to approximately 3,650 bopd as at December 27, 2022, indicating the well continues to clean out completion fluid; 
• With the field currently producing at approximately 20,000 bopd limited by export capacity, the technical team has delayed starting the already installed electro-submersible pump (“ESP”) on well 12H to gather data under natural flow conditions and to prevent production constraints on other wells;
• Once the ESP is activated, the 12H well is expected to produce similarly to the neighboring 13H well, which averaged 6,451 bopd during its first 30 days online, and has averaged approximately 4,000 bopd during the past 10 days;
• The 12H well confirms the possibility of drilling another line of wells south of the 12H and 13H wells; and,
• The total cost of the 12H well is estimated at $15.2 million, slightly higher than budget due to directional drilling tool complications.

Social Trust Addendum Update
PetroTal is pleased to announce that on December 20, 2022, it received board approval to incorporate the 2.5% social trust addendum into the Block 95 License Contract. Perupetro’s board have also approved the social trust addendum on December 22, 2022. Now the proposed addendum will go through the process of receiving approval from the Ministry of Energy & Mines and the Economy and Finance Ministry before Peru’s President can sign the Supreme Decree authorising Perupetro to amend the Block 95 License Contract. This is expected to be completed by the end of the second quarter 2023. PetroTal will continue to set aside funds in a separate bank account as per the agreed social trust addenda.

Current Production Now At 20,000 bopd
The Company has averaged approximately 20,000 bopd since December 16, 2022, with an estimated production capacity of over 24,000 bopd. With export capacity now reestablished, most of the Brazilian barges are now arriving in Bretana, allowing the Company to increase production. Once filled, they will travel to Manaus, Brazil to unload. It is possible that this travel schedule may create export constraints for the Company early in 2023 while the barging fleet returns to optimal route travel times.

2023 Guidance Release

PetroTal expects to release its 2023 production and capital budget in mid January, 2023, and will present at the Pareto Securities 18th Annual E&P Independents Conference in London on January 18, 2023.

Manuel Pablo Zuniga-Pflucker, President and Chief Executive Officer, commented:
“We are finishing 2022 with 20,000 bopd of production and 24,000 bopd of production capacity, including 12H rates flowing naturally with the ESP yet to be activated.  With the Social Trust Fund in its final setup stage, the PetroTal team will focus on enhancing our export capabilities to produce at full capacity.” 

This is a very handy Christmas gift from PetroTal to its shareholders and the shares celebrated with a 5% rise on a quiet day in London.

The CEO makes the points better than most could when saying that with 20/-  b/d of production, still well below capacity and more to come from 12H once the ESP is brought into use.With the STF being nearly completed and the fine tuning of the positioning of barges it loks to me like the news we are expecting on January 18th should be good. 

Once again I am in no mood to change my target price for PTAL, which I have posted at 150p per share for some time, with a fair wind behind these capacity figures and a continuing firm oil price the company is set very fair indeed.

KeyFacts Energy Industry Directory: Malcy's Blog