MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Colombia’s Ecopetrol announces seventh technical oil discovery in 2010

Colombia is self sufficient and exports the surplus to the US

Colombia’s Ecopetrol has reported oil shows from a second stratigraphic well on the Cano Sur block, where Shell holds a 50% stake. Ecopetrol said that it completed drilling of the Draco-1 well, located in the southeastern province of Meta.

The block covers an under-explored section of Colombia’s heavy oil belt, lying west of established fields such as Castilla.

The well was drilled vertically to a total depth of 3284 feet and core bit samples supported the findings of the first well drilled on the same project, Mago-1.

These findings point to a hydrocarbon-producing system in the Carbonera formation, with net pay of 20 feet but porosity averaging 30%, Ecopetrol said in a statement.

Ecopetrol said the find supports expectations about the hydrocarbon-producing potential of this eastern sector of the Llanos basin, where the Rubiales and Quifa fields are also located.

“Exploration work will continue in 2011, with the objective of evaluating the potential of this deposit and for future prospects for production,” Ecopetrol said.

The state-controlled company is starting to reap the rewards of its aggressive upstream investment programme. Ecopetrol has been involved in seven technical discoveries in 2010, including four in the eastern Llanos basin.

The company has been gradually increasing its own production, largely as a result of heavy investments in incrementing output at existing heavy oil fields.

Ecopetrol also aims to squeeze more value from the assets acquired from UK’s BP, in partnership with Talisman Energy. These assets include the Cusiana field.

The Colombian government holds 89.9% of Ecopetrol stock, but Mines and Energy Minister Carlos Rodado has said that the company could float additional shares next year.

According to Oil and Gas Journal (O&GJ), Colombia had 1.36 billion barrels of proven crude oil reserves in 2010, the fifth-largest in South America. The country produced an estimated 680,000 barrels per day (bbl/d) of oil in 2009, up from 600.000 bbl/d in 2008.

With oil consumption reaching an estimated 282,000 bbl/d in 2008, Colombia exports about half of its oil production, with much of this going to the United States.

The Colombian government is targeting a production of a million bpd for 2015.