Ecopetrol Boosts Its Guess on Colombia’s Oil-Wealthy Japanese Plains

(Bloomberg) — State-controlled oil driller Ecopetrol SA sees “nice potential” for growth and exploration in Colombia’s crude-producing heartland alongside bets on US fracking and offshore fuel.

The corporate mentioned 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% stake. That funding’s strategic location close to Castilla and Chichimene, among the many nation’s high 5 fields, permits the corporate to profit from synergies, a high govt mentioned in an interview.

“We’re trying to enhance our reserves and output,” Rafael Guzman, Ecopetrol’s vice chairman of hydrocarbons, mentioned Tuesday in Barrancabermeja.

With reserves of oil and pure fuel falling, and President Gustavo Petro refusing to grant new exploration licenses, Ecopetrol is concentrated on contracts signed earlier than the environmentalist chief took energy in 2022. The corporate’s priorities are boosting output in blocks similar to CPO-09 within the cattle-ranching lowlands of central Colombia, discovering and producing pure fuel within the nation’s Caribbean waters, and rising output at its worldwide property, Guzman mentioned.

Ecopetrol’s latest manufacturing progress has come from the Permian Basin — which accounted for 14% of output within the third quarter — serving to offset declines at residence. 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 damaging to nature and humanity.

Nevertheless 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 just lately till mid-2026.

“We have already got a dedication,” Guzman mentioned.

Even after Colombia just lately began importing liquefied pure fuel to provide factories and houses, Petro is decided to dam using fracking to spice up output and shut the deficit. The surroundings 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 might triple the nation’s reserves if the deposit proves commercially viable, making it Colombia’s biggest-ever pure fuel discovery. The drillers have mentioned first manufacturing will likely be in 2029 on the earliest.

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