Two projects awaiting the approval of the Anla for onshore
Covid delayed 90% of oil areas from reactivation.
Delays in assembling the EIA of blocks assigned in recent rounds would lead to a delay in the start of the exploratory phase in polygons.
COMPANIES BY: PORTFOLIO JUNE 30, 2021 12:56 P. M.
The five years in which not a single oil block was delivered for development (until 2018), is passing a bill to the country's hydrocarbon reactivation since it has been slower and more costly than calculated, especially in the last year .
And while the nation has set the goal of delivering a minimum of 50 areas for offshore and onshore operations, the 35 contracts that have been signed to date for exploration and production (E&P) of oil and natural gas In this four-year period, as a result of three auctions of the Permanent Process of Allocation of Areas (Ppaa), more than 90% are in their initial phase to process the environmental license.
To the above, it is added that the little more than 30 blocks that are being assigned in the fourth round of the Ppaa, will run the same fate and their results would not be seen before seven years.
Thus, the intention of the Executive to appeal to this rebirth of the oil task, as a spearhead to strengthen the economic reactivation, after the pandemic, would not yield its results until 10 years from now.
Regarding the blocks assigned to Ecopetrol in the Ppaa auctions, the company is in the process of preparing the Environmental Impact Study (EIA) which will be presented to Anla. We are delayed in its delivery since field visits by technicians have been suspended due to the pandemic, explained an Ecopetrol spokesperson.
In the same sense, Frontera Energy spokespersons indicated that there have been delays in the advancement of the EIA development of the two blocks that were awarded to them in the Ppaa, and which they must present to Anla, to begin exploration tasks. once they receive the endorsement of the entity.
But apart from the 35 oil contracts signed to date for the development of hydrocarbon blocks in the Ppaa, there are another seven that are completing their study before Anla.
Of this number of contracts that await the endorsement of the environmental entity, three are key not only for the reactivation process, but also to contribute to increasing the oil and natural gas reserves that the country needs.
One of them is that of the oil company Noble Energy, which is processing its license for the two offshore blocks that it will develop in the waters of the Caribbean Sea. It should be remembered that Noble Energy acquired a 40% stake from Shell to develop the operation of the exploration and production contracts for the COL-3 and GUA OFF 3 blocks, off the coast of La Guajira.
"We hope to drill the first well after analyzing the prospects in more detail and obtaining the corresponding approvals from the Government, as well as building the business in partnership with the communities," said Ian Gordon, manager of Noble Energy Colombia.
The other two projects awaiting the approval of the Anla for onshore tasks are that of the US multinational Exxon Mobil to continue with the exploration program of the VMM 37 block (Manat Blanco well) and that of the French oil company Maurel & Prom, also to drill two exploratory wells between the municipalities of Corrales and Tasco (Boyac).
The lag that draws the most attention in the hydrocarbon task carried out in the national territory, has to do with the development of offshore blocks in the waters of the Caribbean Sea, since the same complexity for the lifting of the EIA would lead to a delay in at the time of presenting the EIA document to Anla for its study and processing of the environmental license.
In total there are 16 areas assigned in the waters of the Caribbean Sea, of which four are still under technical evaluation (TEA) and 12 under E&P, and the latter have not yet begun their development due to cuts in investment budgets.
However, with three drilling wells (Gorgon-2, Uchuva-1 and Cumbia-1) for exploration tasks in the coming months, the offshore operation will start engines again, after a year in which the pandemic slowed its activity.
"The discoveries of hydrocarbons in the contracts awarded in the Caribbean Sea will be ready to receive the investments (estimated at US $ 2,000 million) that will take place once the pandemic has been overcome," said Armando Zamora, president of the National Hydrocarbons Agency. (ANH).
In addition to the above, in terms of exploration, the country is failing the subject, and the investment levels for this task have fallen since 2012, and have remained during the last five years at around US $ 800 million annually, when in the boom years, the item exceeded US $ 2 billion.
"The country does not have an interesting and competitive geological panorama, and compared to other nations, they register a higher rate of exploration due to the complete and detailed information of their prospectivity in the deposits", explained Ins Elvira Vesga, senior counsel at Holland & Knight.
Since 2012, the nation has registered a permanent drop in the level of this task. From 2010 to 2014, the hydrocarbon operation had more than 100 exploratory wells per year, including in 2008, with 99 wells, and 2009, with 75 wells, showed representativeness despite two years of crisis due to oil prices.
In addition, for more than five years, the country has not risen from 50 exploratory wells. And today, the number ranges from 18 to 26, which is practically less than a quarter of the number of drills it operated nine to ten years ago.
"Between 2010 and 2014 an average of 119 exploratory wells were drilled per year, while between 2015 and 2019 the average decreased to 39 wells per year, and in 2020 18 wells were drilled , " said Nelson Castaeda, president of Campetrol.
https://www.portafolio.co/negocios/empresas/petroleo-en-colombia-retraso-el-90-por-ciento-de-areas-petroleras-de-la-reactivacion-553514