[Translated from Spanish]
The president of the Government of La Rioja, Gonzalo Capellán, explained in his visit to Viura that “whenever a company installed in La Rioja generates jobs and wealth, it helps to have socioeconomic development for the region.” Along with Capellán, authorities such as the mayors of the neighboring towns (Sotés, Hornos de Moncalvillo and Navarrete) attended, as well as the president of the Federation of Companies of La Rioja.
The Viura gas extraction project in Sotés will increase its production by 800% in the next two years with the opening of three new wells and the repair of one currently inactive, as reported this Friday by David Alameda, Business Director of Heyco Energy Iberia, current majority partner of the operation. Heyco entered Viura in 2022 acquiring the stake of Unión Fenosa (58.8%) and recently has also bought its share (37.7%) from the Basque Hydrocarbons Society (belonging to the Government of the Basque Country). Although this agreement is pending the approval of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, it assumes that the company already owns 96.5%, compared to the other 3.5% of Oil Gas Skills.
The projection is to open a new well and repair the one that is currently inactive this year and two others in 2025, to reach an estimated final production of about 800,000 cubic meters of gas per day. Currently, the Viura project employs 80 people directly and indirectly and it is expected to temporarily increase this figure by 50 more. Heyco has estimated that the Sotés well contains at least 3,000 million cubic meters of natural gas and that the operation currently extracts 10% of its capacity, with a single active well.
The Viura project was inaugurated in 2017, although it was discovered fourteen years ago. Heyco estimates that so far 500 million cubic meters of natural gas have been extracted but the complete development of the field will allow the reduction of gas imports abroad and that Viura natural gas is obtained with 85% less carbon footprint than that brought from the United States and Russia.
This, Heyco estimates, would also produce tax revenues of 25.7 million euros. According to the law, the owners of farms 1.5 kilometers around the wells will receive 1% of the value of the production and the autonomous community and neighboring municipalities can aspire to receive 4% of the Tax on the Value of the Production of Gas, Oil and Condensate, but this has not yet occurred despite having been claimed.