It is the case of Ecuador, Colombia and Argentinanations with which “We must compare ourselves because we have to be attractive or investors will go to those countries“, states Guillermo Shinno, Minister of Energy and Mines.
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The sector indicators effectively show that Peru is not competitive in exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbons. Proof of this is the collapse of investment in exploration, which went from US$946.7 million in 2012 to US$9.8 million in 2025 (-99%), according to statistics compiled by the Peruvian Hydrocarbons Society (SPH).
This, in line with the reduction of exploration contractswhich have contracted from 62 to five in said period, with the aggravating factor that only in three of them –lots Z-61, Z-62 and Z-63, of Anadarko– true exploratory activity is carried out.
It is not surprising, therefore, that oil and natural gas reserves have decreased by 50.1% and 65%, respectively, over the last decade, as pointed out by the Minem Hydrocarbon Resources Book 2024.
“Currently there is only one company that carries out exploration in Peru, and it is Anadarko“, he points out José Mansen, former head of the Minem Social Management Office.
Reserves and investment in oil and gas are at their lowest point, but there are signs of recovery.
It is not surprising, therefore, that oil and natural gas reserves have been consumed by 50.1% and 65%, respectively, over the last decade, as pointed out by the Minem Hydrocarbon Resources Book 2024.
And all this, while the Peruvian population demands more fossil fuels, whether diesel and gasoline, as is the case in the Ucayali and Loreto regions, or natural gas, as requested by the southern regions.
In this context, attracting new investments to increase hydrocarbon reserves is an urgent challenge, especially in the case of oilenergy whose production is progressively declining, to the point that today we produce the same as we did 80 years ago, that is, 37 thousand barrels per day (bpd).
We are talking about an insufficient volume to cover the country’s needs, estimated at 250 thousand bpd of liquid fuels.
The problem of liquid fuels is not, however, the only thing that worries the authorities. For him Minem The decline in natural gas reserves is especially serious due to its implications for the electrical sectorhe “large consumer of said energy”.
“Let us remember that Camisea gas has a horizon of 13 years at the current rate of production and consumption. If we do not replenish the reserves, the electricity generation sector will not have gas and that means that electricity prices are going to skyrocket in 13 or 14 years, and that is what we want to avoid“, says Minister Shinno.
Minister Guillermo Shinno warns that natural gas may begin to become scarce in 13 or 14 if we do not replenish reserves. The greatest effect, he points out, will be felt in electricity generation, with higher electricity rates due to the lower supply of gas for thermoelectric plants.
/ MANUEL MELGAR
In order to prevent this gray scenario, the official warns that there is no other way out “other than to promote investment in exploration.” How?
Minem and SPH agree that our country’s lack of competitiveness in attracting investment in exploration is due to the disproportionate deadlines for approving permits and authorizations.
For example: to drill a first exploratory well in Peru, oil companies must wait 10 to 20 years, an excessive time if we compare it with the average in Colombia (four to five years) or Ecuador (three to four years).
To correct this inequity, Minem proposes a regulatory reform focused on two main points: the redesign of the permit, but “without lowering environmental standards”; and the modernization of the legal framework.
Main elements of this reform are the so-called Hydrocarbons Single Windowwhich will be implemented by supreme decree, and the updating of regulations such as the Organic Law of Hydrocarbons (LOH) and the Oil Company Qualification Regulationsexplains the Vice Minister of Hydrocarbons, Iris Cárdenas.
Carlos Gonzales, general manager of Enerconcultspecifies that it will be a surgical reform, since there will not be many variations. This, in order to avoid the problems that arose in 2018 when Minem tried to modify more than 30 articles of the LOH, without much success.
Minem has launched a reform plan for the hydrocarbons sector, which involves accelerating permits and reformulating some specific items of the Organic Hydrocarbons Law. (Photo: Petrotal).
Hence the proposal to reformulate only some specific items of this body of law, such as the validity of the oil exploitation contracts (40 years) and gas (30 years), which will be expanded to their economic limit, that is, until their exhaustion, as occurs with mining concessions. It is also proposed to set competitive royalties, to bring them closer to international standards.
With this new impulse, Minem seeks to attract risk capital to explore new horizons such as deep waters (off-shore) and frontier basinswhich house immense prospective resources. It is, however, a path that has already been taken little by little. And, according to Peru-Petrothere is good news about it after a long time.
Last Tuesday, the Australian Condor Energies announced the start of negotiations with Peru-Petro to access a batch license contract Z-72 (‘off-shore’ of Tumbes).
This is an area where “There have already been previous discoveries, so the company considers that there is natural gas in large quantities.”refers Esteban Bertarelli, president of the hydrocarbon agencys.
Condor estimates that lot Z-72 may contain up to 1 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of natural gas in contingent resources, a volume similar to those recorded in the entire northwest of the country. This, in addition to the oil potential, which the company estimates at 3.3 billion
Víctor Sanz, vice president of the Peruvian Institute of Gas, Oil and Energy Engineers (IPIGPE), share this optimism because “The sea of Tumbes is pure oil“, to the extent that ““There are areas where it appears on the surface in large quantities.”
TotalEnergies, the sixth largest oil company in the world, would enter Peru to operate off-shore lots in the month of November. | Photo: AFP
Peru-Petro hopes to sign the contract for lot Z-72 before the end of the year. It would be, Bertarelli points out, one of the five or six license agreements that would be signed with oil companies in the remainder of 2026.
Background are the two contracts that the hydrocarbons agency plans to sign before the end of the year with TotalEnergiesa French major oil company (the sixth largest globally) that seeks to explore the Lambayeque coast in two new lots, named Z-70 and Z-71.
These are, explains Bertarelli, areas that the French company has previously evaluated – through Technical Evaluation Agreements (CET) – and that have proven to have oil and gas potential, which is why it aspires to explore them.
If the news is confirmed it would be a triple goal because TotalEnergies would not come alone, but accompanied by two other heavyweights: Qatar Energy and Petrobras. Thus, we would have several new players who would add to the work that is already being done. Anadarko in it off-shore.
“Currently there is only one company that carries out exploration in Peru, and it is Anadarko“, he points out José Mansen, former head of the Minem Social Management Office.
The American recently concluded the campaign 3D seismic exploration largest ever carried out in Peru and is now preparing to drill its first exploratory well in lot Z-62, off the coast of Trujillo. This, towards the first quarter of 2027
Anadarko has been managing the hiring of a ship or drilling platform to explore lot Z-62. Photo: Minem
César Ardiles, vice president of exploration at Anadarko Perustates that the company hopes to discover light oil (of high quality) and that, to this end, it is managing the contracting of an exploration vessel and finalizing details to achieve approval of the oil study. environmental impact (EIA) before him Senace.
“Our expectation is to achieve approval of the EIA in the month of November.e”, says the executive.
The drilling of lot 192, explains Bertarelli, will catapult investment figures in exploration. And the same will happen with oil production, which will increase with the restart of operations of the lot 192 (Loreto).
And the Board of Directors of PerúPetro gave the green light, days ago, to the participation of the Egyptian Cheiron in the revival of the oil project in association with Petro-Peru.
The hydrocarbons agency trusts that the North African company will reactivate the field’s operations, halted since 2020, in such a way that “can restart production a year and a half after signing the contract with the Peruvian State”.
To achieve this objective, the Government has to approve two supreme decrees: one, providing for the transfer to Petro-Perú of all the shares of Altamesa Energy (former project operator); and another arranging the transfer to Cheiron of 75% of Petro-Perú.
Peru-Petro anticipates that the batch could begin production in mid-2028, at an initial rate of 5,000 barrels per day.
Both DSs have to be promulgated before October 24. Otherwise, the contract for lot 192 will return to zero and will be returned to Perú-Petro.
Note: Perú-Petro reported that on Saturday, October 17, DS 021-2026-EM was issued, which provides for the transfer of Alta Mesa’s participation in lot 192 to Petro-Perú.
