Ecopetrol has chosen seven partners led by Canadian oil companies, Pacific Rubiales and Petrominerales to work on a $4.2 billion project to build an oil pipeline, Colombia’s state oil company said on Thursday.
Ecopetrol will hold 55 percent of the shares in the project which will also involve Hocol, Rancho Hermoso – Canacol Energy, Grupo C&C Energia and Vetra Exploracion y Produccion each with less than 1 percent share.
The pipeline will run from Llanos Orientales, where a major part of Colombia’s oil is extracted, to the Caribbean port of Covenas and will be completed in three phases by 2012.
Latin America’s No. 4 oil producer, Colombia has seen petroleum investment soar since 2002 when the government began a U.S.-backed drive against FARC guerrillas. Violence has eased allowing access to oil areas once off limits due to security. (Patrick Markey / Reuters)
