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Oil production up by 19.5%

By Manuel Rueda, Editorial Director

Tuesday, May 18th, 2010

Colombia´s national agency for hydrocarbons or ANH said that Oil production in April was 19.5% greater than it was in April of 2009, reaching an average of 776,000 barrels per day, compared to 649,000 barrels per day in April of 2009.

The ANH also announced that national oil company Ecopetrol raised its production to 679,000 barrels per day in April, a number that is 13.9% greater than what was produced in April of 2009.

Oil exploration in Colombia is growing thanks to improving security conditions and tax incentives to foreign investors, which include low royalty payments.

The country averaged a modest 526,000 barrels per day in 2006, but in the first trimester of 2010, oil production increased by an average of 230,000 barrels per day.

Experts say that by the end of next year Colombia could become South America´s second largest oil producer behind Venezuela, with some analysts expecting Colombia to surpass the 1 million barrel a day threshold by the end of this year.

Foreign companies currently extracting oil in Colombia include oil giants BP, Chevron, and Occidental. But smaller companies from Europe and Asia, such as Spain´s Repsol and Malaysia´s Petronas are also developing new deals in the country.