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The Pungarayacu project covers appraisal and development of Block 20, including production and upgrading of the heavy oil. Block 20 is an area of approximately 426 square miles (1,100 square kilometers, or 272,000 acres), approximately 125 miles (200 kilometers) southeast of Quito, in the Amazon Basin.
Block 20 contains the 250-square-mile Pungarayacu heavy-oil field, which was discovered approximately 30 years ago. Ivanhoe plans to apply its patented field-located, HTL™ heavy-to-light upgrading technology to the development of the Pungarayacu field.
Petroproduccion, Ecuador's state oil company, drilled 26 wells in Block 20's Pungarayacu field during the 1980s. The field has been studied and evaluated by Petroproduccion, ARCO and other major oil companies. These third-party studies estimated that Pungarayacu contains between 4.5 billion barrels (Petroecuador-ARCO) and 7.0 billion barrels (Petroecuador) of oil-in-place.
Confirmation of these resources would make the Pungarayacu field the largest accumulation of heavy oil in Ecuador and one of the largest in Latin America. Preliminary engineering estimates would support production from the field at rates in excess of 100,000 barrels per day.
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