With countries in South America now attracting increasing attention in the global oil and gas industry, there are indications that they are continuing to push the envelope in order to position their oil resources to become significant game-changers in what, in many instances, are still countries plagued by poverty.
Last week, Petroecuador, Ecuador’s state-owned oil company, announced that it will be seeking to double production to 800,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boed) over the next five years, an ambition that will require an injection of US$12 billion into the industry.
The political administration in Quito, the Ecuadorean capital, said that in order to realise this goal Petroecuador hopes to join forces with private-sector oil companies through consortia in the hope of developing large blocks of hydrocarbons on land and offshore.