Colombia, Latin America’s fourth largest oil producer, plans to auction off 113 oil blocks with a total area of 38.5 million acres, the National Hydrocarbons Agency said Wednesday.
Colombia’s oil sector has been the main driver behind foreign direct investment over the last decade, boosting economic growth and export revenues after years of declining crude oil production in the late 1990s.
Next year the country will auction 102 onshore blocks, mainly in the central region, and 11 blocks in the Caribbean, the agency said in a presentation published on its website.
Contracts will be divided up into exploration and production and technical evaluation. Companies should present documents from April 11 to June 8, it said, with adjudication of the blocks and contract signing taking place in November and December.
After years of slow decline, oil output has ramped up to historic highs of 950,000 barrels per day, as better security aiding greater exploitation of heavy crude areas in addition to incremental production at existing fields.
