State-controlled oil driller Ecopetrol SA sees “nice potential” for improvement and exploration in Colombia’s crude-producing heartland alongside bets on US fracking and offshore fuel.
The corporate stated this month that it now has full possession of the CPO-09 block within the nation’s oil-rich jap plains after finishing its $452 million acquisition of Repsol SA’s 45 p.c stake. That funding’s strategic location close to Castilla and Chichimene, among the many nation’s prime 5 fields, permits the corporate to learn from synergies, a prime government stated in an interview.
“We’re seeking to improve our reserves and output,” Rafael Guzman, Ecopetrol’s vice chairman of hydrocarbons, stated Tuesday in Barrancabermeja.
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With reserves of oil and pure fuel falling, and President Gustavo Petro refusing to grant new exploration licenses, Ecopetrol is targeted on contracts signed earlier than the environmentalist chief took energy in 2022. The corporate’s priorities are boosting output in blocks equivalent to CPO-09 within the cattle-ranching lowlands of central Colombia, discovering and producing pure fuel within the nation’s Caribbean waters, and growing output at its worldwide property, Guzman stated.
Ecopetrol’s latest manufacturing progress has come from the Permian Basin — which accounted for 14 p.c of output within the third quarter — serving to offset declines at house. Earlier this month, Petro requested the corporate to promote its operations within the US, citing his authorities’s stance in opposition to fracking, which he says is harmful to nature and humanity.
Nonetheless one of many joint ventures the corporate has within the southwestern US with Occidental Petroleum Corp. runs by means of 2027 and the opposite was prolonged not too long ago till mid-2026.
“We have already got a dedication,” Guzman stated.
Even after Colombia not too long ago began importing liquefied pure fuel to provide factories and houses, Petro is decided to dam the usage of fracking to spice up output and shut the deficit. The setting ministry this week despatched an anti-fracking invoice to lawmakers.
Ecopetrol and Petroleo Brasileiro SA introduced in December that the Sirius-2 effectively off the Caribbean coast may triple the nation’s reserves if the deposit proves commercially viable, making it Colombia’s biggest-ever pure fuel discovery. The drillers have stated first manufacturing might be in 2029 on the earliest.
Checks to find out how a lot Sirius-2 will produce are anticipated to finish this quarter, in keeping with Guzman. Following that, the identical drill might be used to discover the Papayuela and Buena Suerte wells that are additionally situated within the GUA-OFF-0 block beforehand often called Tayrona.
The plan is to drill each wells this yr and whereas their potential can solely be decided after, the findings in Sirius “helps give the next probability of success,” the manager stated.
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