BPZ Energy, an independent oil and gas exploration and production company, announced yesterday that the Peruvian Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM) had granted extension of the gas flaring permit for the Company’s Albacora field operations through December 28, 2012, allowing oil production testing to continue.
Peruvian regulations require permits for gas flaring if gas reinjection or commercial gas sales are not occurring. Although the necessary equipment to reinject gas and water at Albacora was installed early in the year, it is currently idle as the corresponding environmental permit to allow for reinjection is still being finalized. Once the environmental permit is received and the equipment startup process begins, the recently granted gas flaring permit also allows for any necessary flaring while bringing the currently idled reinjection equipment to operating condition.
Houston-based BPZ Energy, which trades as BPZ Resources, Inc. on the New York Stock Exchange and the Bolsa de Valores in Lima, is an independent oil and gas exploration and production company which has exclusive license contracts for oil and gas exploration and production covering approximately 2.2 million acres in four properties in northwest Peru. The Company is currently executing the development in Block Z-1 of the Corvina oil discovery, as well as the redevelopment of the Albacora oil field, and the exploration of Blocks XIX, XXII and XXIII, in parallel with the execution of an integrated gas-to-power strategy, which includes generation and sale of electric power in Peru and the development of a regional gas marketing strategy. The Company also owns a non-operating net profits interest in a producing property in southwest Ecuador.
[mappress] Press Release, July 4, 2012