Gammon India invests in Ecuador

I had known Gammon India as an engineering and construction company when I was posted in Libya in 1983-85. I was pleasantly surprised to see that they have diversified into petroleum and other sectors and have even entered Latin America.

Gammon has established a subsidiary company Campo Puma Oriente SA ( based in Panama ) which operates the Puma oil fields in Ecuador which consists of eleven wells with proven reserves of 8 million barrels. So far, they have drilled seven wells which produce 1,500 bpd. The contract for the 20-year lease of Puma fields was signed in March 2008.

The Puma field investment is a joint venture with Joshi Technology International of USA. Gammon has 66.4% and Joshi 33.6%. The joint venture company in Ecuador is called as Consorcio Pegaso They have invested 50 million dollars till December 2010 and plan to invest 51 million dollars more in the next five years.

Joshi company, founded by Dr Joshi produces 5000 bpd of oil in Colombia. They also have oil fields in India and USA.

The Puma block is in the orient basin located 400 km from the capital Quito. The block has an area of 166 sq kms.

According to a June 2011 Reserve Bank of India report, Gammon has invested 1.8 billion dollars in their Panama subsidiary which will diversify into agriculture, fishing, hunting and forestry. Hmm.... Interesting ...