Colombia’s crude-oil output in July rose 19.6% to an average of 786,000 barrels a day from 661,000 barrels a day a year earlier, the government’s oil-licensing agency, known as ANH, said Tuesday.
The July output, which is slightly higher than June’s 783,000 barrels a day, was also the highest monthly average since November 1999, when production averaged 795,000 barrels a day.
Average output for the first six months of the year stands at 770,000 barrels of crude a day.
State oil company Ecopetrol SA and its partner companies reached an average production in July of 704,000 barrels per day, a 15.4% increase from a year earlier. Output by companies operating through licensing agreements stood at 82,000 barrels per day, ANH said.
In 2009, average crude-oil output totaled 671,000 barrels a day, the highest since 2000, when average output stood at 688,000 barrels a day.
Colombia’s natural-gas production averaged 997 million cubic feet per day in June, down from 1.03 billion cubic feet per day in the same month last year.
Colombia has seen massive inflows of foreign investment to develop its oil and natural-gas industries as a result of the government’s market-friendly policies and its success in gaining control of territory once in the hands of Marxist guerrillas.
The country’s newly appointed Mines and Energy Minister Carlos Rodado said last week that the expected the country’s oil output to average 767,000 barrels a day for 2010.
