Puesto Guardian
The Puesto Guardian Concession is 622sq km and is located in the Noroeste Basin in NW Argentina. The area includes five fields; four of which are producing from the Cretaceous Yacoraite formation (depth 2400-3200m) with light, sweet crude that is trucked to a local refinery.
History
The field was originally discovered by YPF in 1937 and was awarded to a consortium including the current operator Petrolera San Jose (the “Operator”) in 1991 as part of the privatisation of YPF. Whilst the Concession did produce at a peak of 9000 bopd during the early 1980’s, only one well has been drilled since the current Concession was awarded in 1991 and production has remained on a very slow decline from 1,100 bopd in 1994 to the current production of approximately 450 bopd (gross). 344sq km of 3D seismic data was acquired in 2005 over three of the fields, but low oil prices and other factors have meant that no wells have been drilled since.
An international, independent reserve audit report dated May 2010 attributed gross reserves of 2.9 million 1P and 7.4 million 2P as at 31 December, 2009, within the confines of the existing licence period to 2016, and using a realised oil price assumption of US$ 46/bbl (currently US$ 70/bbl). The Company’s assessment of oil reserves on a licence expiry of 2026 is net 2.1 million 1P and 6.6 million 2P barrels of oil (based on US$ 56/bbl), with further upside potential.
An application for a concession extension to 2026 was approved at the end 2011.