Eighteen companies have been attracted to Colombia by the 224 new blocks for oil extraction and technical evaluation on offer, according the National Hydrocarbons Agency (ANH), La Republica reports.
Among the 18 companies that will invest in Colombia are OGX, owned by Brazilian billionaire and the world’s eighth richest man Eike Batista, and CPVEN, a Venezuelan company with over 25 years experience in services associated with drilling oil and gas wells.
For Alejandro Martinez, the president of the Colombian Petroleum Association, the news clearly demonstrates a growth in foreign investment.
“The arrival of new oil miners indicates that we have a good capacity to attract companies,” Martinez explained.
The renewed interest in Colombian oil follows an independent evaluation by the Mines and Energy Ministry, which announced in May that the total proven reserves of crude oil in Colombia are now at 2.05 billion barrels, up from 1.79 billion last year.
Julio Cesar Vera, the Mines and Energy Ministry’s director of hydrocarbons, has also predicted a rise in oil production from nearly 800 thousand barrels per day to more than a million barrels per day in three years.
The prediction reflects the booming oil industry in Colombia, the fourth largest producer in Latin America, which saw another successful oil exploration by the Canadian-Colombian oil producer Pacific Rubiales, announced on Monday.
The discovery was in the block “CPE-6,” located in Colombia’s eastern plains, and will allow Pacific Rubiales to build another five oil rigs.
Although more tests are required to clarify the conditions and the commercial potential of the new well, the finding is good news for Colombia, which hopes to attract about $54000 million investment in the oil sector between 2008 and 2015 .
