With a projected annual income of US$250 million, the President of Bolivia, Luis Arce, began production of a new gas field in the Tarija (south) department on Saturday.
On the occasion of the public act, Arce announced that the Los Monos-Aguaragüe Centro hydrocarbon fields would contribute an additional production of 23 million cubic feet per day (MMcfd) of natural gas destined to the national hydrocarbon supply.
“After the successful exploratory campaign, we are now entering the production of these gas fields that will increase the production of natural gas, which means more or less about 250 million dollars for our country,” he said.
The surface facilities allow the collection of hydrocarbons, processing, and delivery of the hydrocarbons produced from the Los Monos-Aguaragüe Centro fields.
The hydrocarbon fields are located in the municipality of Villa Montes, belonging to the Gran Chaco Autonomous Region of the department of Tarija.
The “Los Monos-Aguaragüe Centro Production Facilities” project invested US$21.6 million and started with the early production of hydrocarbons 35 calendar days before the contractual date.
According to state-owned YPFB, this project included the development of the engineering design, reuse of available equipment from other fields, procurement of new equipment, and construction of gathering lines and production facilities for the LMS-X12, LMS-X13D ST2 and AGC-X1D wells, trunk lines to the production battery and lateral delivery lines to the gas pipelines.
For his part, the Bolivian Minister of Hydrocarbons and Energy, Franklin Molina, stated that the additional production would allow the Plurinational State of Bolivia to receive 250 million dollars in royalties, taxes, and participation.
“Three wells have been drilled positively in the Icla and Santa Rosa sands. With this increase in available production, the national supply of hydrocarbons will be extended with economic benefits for Bolivians,” the official said.
He commented that incorporating incremental volumes from the Los Monos-Aguaragüe Centro fields is part of the Upstream Reactivation Plan launched in July 2021 to make and attract investments for the exploration and exploitation of gas and oil in Bolivia.