BOGOTA, Feb 5 (Reuters) - Colombia has modified how it willgive out offshore oil and gas exploration contracts andrelaunched bidding for more than 20 possible production areas,as the Andean nation seeks to award oil contracts for the firsttime in more than four years.
Colombia last had an auction in 2014. The government heldoff recent bidding rounds because of low international crudeprices, repeatedly postponing an auction that had been set totake place last year.
The new system will allow companies to bid on areas thatinterest them, not just on those already on offer by thegovernment, the National Hydrocarbons Agency (ANH) said in astatement on its website late on Monday.
The changes have been in the wind since mid-2018, but had tobe approved by the ANH's directive counsel, which includes theministers of energy and finance.
"The agency responded to the expectations of the industryand of communities," agency president Luis Miguel Morelli saidin the statement.
Under the changes, offshore contracts that are extendedbeyond their original length will now cost companies at least 5percent more in payments to the government, the statement said.
Disagreements between companies and the government will beresolved in arbitration and the conditions for communities nearoffshore projects will improve, the ANH added, without providingfurther details.
Companies currently interested in nine offshore blocksinclude state-run Ecopetrol, Anadarko, Shell, Exxon Mobil and Repsol, the ANH said.
"It is expected that once the decision is published andcirculated the first nine offshore exploration and productioncontracts could be signed in the coming weeks," the statementsaid.
The areas listed for reactivated bidding include 18 onshoreareas - most in the country's southeastern plains region - andtwo offshore blocks in the Caribbean.
Colombia needs to boost foreign investment to revive itsstagnant crude and gas production.
The nation has some 1.78 billion barrels of reserves,equivalent to about 5.7 years of consumption, but wants toincrease that to at least 10 years of consumption.
Colombia produces about 860,000 barrels per day (bpd) ofcrude, half for export.(Reporting by Julia Symmes CobbEditing by Helen Murphy, Bill Trott and Andrea Ricci)
