Halfway between Rincón de los Sauces and Buta Ranquil, where even the bites in good condition do not reach and the Tromen volcano takes over the horizon, the companya Phoenix Global Resources (PGR) began to pierce a dream: that of extend the borders of Vaca Muerta to the north of Neuquén.
–
The area is called Corralera Noreste, an exploratory block where the operator The drilling of the first well began on Tuesday bound for bedrock, a well clearly exploratory that, if successful, could catapult the oil zone of Rincon de los Sauces from the current decline, into a new era with the unconventionals.
This field is in the words of the Phoenix Global Resources CEO Pablo Bizzotto, “A different animal that must be tamed”, and this is not only evident in the absolute distance of the block from networks such as electricity and water, but also under the ground, where the basalt layers are so hard and dense that they forced the company to make the first 36 meters of the well with a mining equipment.
This advance in the most remote well of the entire Neuquén Vaca Muerta, is given by the hand of an operator who reaches unconventional training with a team of well-known professionals but with the dream of writing the new pages in the history of the Argentine shale.
The “Señor Vaca Muerta”, due to his vast knowledge in the formation, returns to the productive fields not only to face the challenge of testing the well furthest from the hot zone of Vaca Muerta and the possibility of developing another hub, in Rincón de los Sauces, in parallel to that of Añelo.
Bizzotto also comes from the hand of a new firm with which it seeks to break the shell of large corporations to be more innovative, but at the same time, with enormous financial support behind since the partner who owns 90% of the shares of PGR is the Swiss firm Mercuria.
“In less than a year since I joined, we set up the staff with people with great experience because they have been since the beginning of Vaca Muerta, we opened an office in Neuquén that was already small, we got the concessions and we are starting with the drilling” , described Bizzotto, to illustrate that “things can be done well and quickly.”
Well CoNE.x-1 it is not a common well. It’s about a purely study well that has a thicker pipe than usual that begins on the surface with a 13-inch casing, and adds a contingency pipe. The well will descend vertically to 2,837 meters and from there it will undertake a short lateral branch of 2,000 meters.
- 45 days
- will undertake the drilling of the Corralera Noreste well as it is a special study drilling.
–
–
–
The well twill have 29 stages of fracture and it is estimated that only in its drilling it will take 45 days and will be similar in essence to the well that will be done once finished in the neighboring block, South Corralera, although in that case the peculiarity will be that it will descend about 700 more meters, up to 3700 meters.
“A normal well costs about 6 million dollars and they are drilled in 16 to 20 days, but in these two wells we are going to invest 32 million dollars because they are really study wells,” Bizzotto remarked. Meanwhile he COO of the firm, Cristian Espina, highlighted that “lmost of the providers are from the area and the best thing is that it is because of its quality because we made tenders ”.
PGR’s strong area It is not Corraleras Noreste, but Mata Mora, a block located within the Vaca Muerta hot zone where the firm will perform two three-well pads this year and that as detailed by Bizzotto “In five years it could be at a production plateau of 40,000 barrels per day.”
–
But the bet on the northernmost areas of the shale formation is another. “Everything is given to create something great, if geology accompanies us. Because if this goes well, I’m excited to give Rincón de los Sauces a new look and that Vaca Muerta can have three hubs: Añelo, which we already know, Cutral Co and this one, Rincón de los Sauces ”.
For Bizzotto, the man behind the great developments that YPF faced until recently, “the history of Vaca Muerta is just beginning and what it requires from the energy transition is to go another speed. The great challenge as Argentina is to quickly put Vaca Muerta in value because the window of opportunity is shortened ”.
Bizzotto: “The important thing about the promotion law is that it comes out”
For the CEO of Phoenix Global Resources, Pablo Bizzotto, the bill that the government is preparing to promote hydrocarbon investments “is positive” since it is “a gesture of giving more certainty.”
Bizzotto maintained that in his personal opinion “Everything that drives activity is good, every incentive helps”, although he warned that in the face of the energy transition process, incentives should reach all industries.
The head of PGR pointed out that “the oil industry has its own uncertainties, from the subsoil, from Brent, and the important thing is not to add more uncertainty to the projects”. That is why he considered that “if a part of the production can be exported, that is an important lever, just as the gesture of being able to extract foreign currency is important, because it generates confidence”, since he warned that “when the barriers to foreign exchange are high, they are also investment income ”.
Bizzotto expressed that it also supports the initiatives to promote local suppliers and emphasized that “With the law the important thing is that it comes out, although what comes out is not everything we would like, because it doesn’t help that it doesn’t come out, that the project continues ”.
–
