By Oliver Griffin
BOGOTA, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Companies including Canada's Parex
Resources and Ecopetrol SA won contracts to
operate oil blocks in Colombia’s auction round on Thursday, as
the Andean nation seeks to reinvigorate its petroleum sector.
Ecopetrol and its subsidiary Hocol SA, Frontera Energy Corp
and Amerisur Resources Plc were all awarded
one contract each, the national hydrocarbons agency (ANH) said,
after their initial bids did not receive counter-offers.
Other successful bidders included Gran Tierra Energy
, and Parex, who were awarded two contracts each, while
CNE Oil and Gas SAS was awarded three contracts.
A consortium of Ecopetrol and Parex was awarded one
contract, as was a consortium of Hocol and Geopark LLA.
Block SN 26 was awarded to a consortium of La Luna and
Captiva, whose bid beat a rival submission from Hocol.
Just one counter-offer was received for block Llanos 124 by
Parex. In earlier bidding, the block received bids from Parex
and a consortium of Geopark and Hocol.
Last year Colombia's crude reserves rose 9.9% to 1.96 billion
barrels, equivalent to 6.2 years of output. The government wants
to increase reserves to at least 10 years equivalent.
Average oil production is about 860,000 barrels per day,
half of which is exported.
"Six years of oil reserves and less than 10 years of gas
reserves is very low for Colombia," Luis Miguel Morelli, head of
the ANH, said. However, after securing some 31 contracts this
year, Morelli said he expects 2020 "to bring a radical change"
to the country's oil sector.
Previously, the ANH had hoped to generate investment of
around $800 million in this auction, the second this year, from
a targeted 20 bids.
However, just 10 companies placed 17 bids in the first round
of the auction for just 15 of the 59 blocks available in
November, which the ANH said it expected to draw more than $500
million in investment.
The first auction in June awarded 11 oil contracts to six
companies, which the ANH expects to generate some $500 million
in investment.
Earlier this year, companies including Royal Dutch Shell Plc
, Noble Group Ltd, Exxon Mobil Corp, Repsol SA
and Parex signed on to operate new blocks.
The ANH said investment from the contracts awarded in 2019
have a current value of $2.71 billion, although this could rise,
depending on the outcome of today's one counter offer.
(Reporting by Oliver Griffin
Editing by Daniel Flynn and Chris Reese)
