Colombia’s state-run petroleum company Ecopetrol is to drill of oil in neighboring Venezuela, Colombia’s Ministry of Mining and Energy announced Wednesday.
Colombia’s Minister of Mines and Energy Mauricio Cardenas said before a meeting with his Venezuelan counterpart Rafael Ramirez that one of the issues to be addressed was the agreement to allow Ecopetrol to operate in Venezuela, with the objective of developing already fuctioning fields and exploring surrounding areas.
“The meeting with Minister Ramirez of Venezuela is of strategic importance for Colombian-Venezuelan relations,” said Cardenas before the meeting in the Caribbean coastal city of Cartagena.
The ministers were also due to discuss a project to build an oil pipeline from the Venezuelan coast to Colombia’s Pacific coast and a gas pipeline from Colombia to Central America, which would pass through Venezuelan territory.
