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(Alliance News) - PetroTal Corp on Tuesday said Peruvian and Brazilian oil convoys trapped by an illegal river blockade in the Puinahua canal in Peru have been released.
The first is an empty Brazilian convoy that was travelling to the Bretena field, with a crew of six, and a total capacity of 70,000 barrels of oil. The second was a Peruvian convoy that contained approximately 40,000 barrels of oil and was heading to the Iquitos refinery. It had a crew of eight Peruvian nationals, none of whom are PetroTal employees.
The Calgary, Canada-based, Peru-focused oil and gas company said the blockade was removed on June 10, after being in place for around a week. Both convoys were being held near the town Siete de Junio.
On June 8, Petrotal had reported that Puinahua canal was blocked by the Indigenous Association for Development & Conservation of Bajo Puinahua, preventing all ships from providing services to PetroTal.
PetroTal said that the blockade coincided with planned output reductions to tie in previously installed infrastructure and modify production operations to benefit future oil production.
The Brazilian and Peruvian oil convoys have now resumed their travel to Iquitos and Bretana respectively, PetroTal said.
On Tuesday the company also reported that it has been averaging production of nearly 22,000 barrels of oil per day for the past seven days. PetroTal said it hopes to maintain production near 22,000 bopd over the next few weeks. At these levels, average production would be around 5% higher than the 17,000 bopd production guidance previously given.
PetroTal also announced well 15H was completely opened following the lifting of the blockade, and has been producing on schedule since June 12 at an average rate of 8,7000 bopd.
Shares in PetroTal were up 3.1% at 41.50 pence each in London Tuesday morning.
By Sabrina Penty, Alliance News reporter
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