MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Colombia finds new reserves; targets 1.3m bbl production by 2020

Ecopetrol CEO Gutierrez Pemberthy: Akacias, one of the biggest exploration successes in recent years

Colombian state-owned oil company Ecopetrol and Canada's Talisman Energy Inc said on Monday they had discovered an estimated 1.3 billion barrels of oil in southeastern Colombia and that about a tenth of it was likely to be recoverable. The announcement was the second in a week for Ecopetrol and an important addition to the diminishing reserves the country has been urgently trying to boost. The Andean nation also expects to eventually exploit shale oil and gas.

 Proven reserves of the Castilla blend heavy crude with API gravity of 8 to 9 degrees are currently 35 million barrels, Ecopetrol said. That is roughly five weeks worth of production in Colombia, which produces about 1 million barrels per day.

Ecopetrol owns a 55% stake in the Akacias area, which covers about 5% of the total area of the CPO-09 block in Meta province, while Toronto-listed Talisman owns 45%. The companies hope to reach output of 25,000 barrels per day by 2015, up from around 5,500 barrels now, and 50,000 barrels by 2020.

“This is a significant discovery ... that I think will be beneficial to both our companies,” said Talisman Chief Executive Officer Hal Kvisle. “There are significant reserves that can be booked at the proven level but also at the resource level.”

He said the oil reserves were a welcome addition to the company's portfolio, which in North America was focused on gas.

Boosting diminishing reserves of crude oil, which stood at around 2.38 billion barrels in 2012, has been a priority for Colombia.

Last Thursday, Ecopetrol said it had discovered crude in the Cano Sur Este block, which it owns in full, with proven reserves of 22.4 million barrels.

The location of the Akacias oil find would offer synergies because it is near the company's most important producing areas, which yield about a quarter of its oil, Ecopetrol said in a filing to the securities regulator.

“Akacias is one of the biggest exploration successes in recent years in Colombia, and clearly shows the potential of heavy crudes in the Llanos Orientales area, the focus of Ecopetrol's exploration campaign,” CEO Javier Gutierrez Pemberthy said in the filing. He added the company's target was one million of clean bbl in 2015 and 1.3 million bbl by 2020.

Nine wells have been drilled as part of the Akacias area delimitation campaign. The discovery well Akacias-1 was drilled at yearend 2010 (OGJ Online, Dec. 1, 2010), while extended production tests began in May 2011 (OGJ Online, Nov. 2, 2011), reaching an average production of 2,000 b/d.