The gas potential in the sea that would double reserves, according to Ecopetrol

“If you ask me if there is gas in Colombia, the answer is yes and a lot,” said Felipe Bayón, president of Ecopetrol, at the V Oil and Gas Summit. During this event, the leader of the majority-state company rrevealed that the offshore gas potential in the northern Caribbean Sea oscillates between 3.4 and 5.5 cubic terapies (TPC).

(Read: The Government seeks the reactivation of 35 oil contracts).

This rrepresents the gas that has been found in the Tayrona block, both with the discovery in the Uchuva-1 well, drilled in 2022 and whose potential is between 3 and 5 cubic terapies), and with the Orca-1 well, drilled in 2014 and which yielded a potential between 0.4 and 0.5 TPC.

These two confirmations mean that the country could more than double current reserves. It should be remembered that with a cutoff to 2021, the country’s gas reserves were 3.8 cubic terapiés, which according to the National Hydrocarbons Agency (ANH) represented 8 years of reserves.

This is in addition to the Kronos, Gorgon and Purple Angel discoveries in the Colombia-5 and Fuerte Sur blocks, which through the Gorgón 2 well, demonstrated important discoveries whose potential is still unknownWell, according to Bayón, they are still in the verification phase.

Ana Duque, president of Shell for Colombia, told Portafolio that next year the total number that the country has will be known.

However, with respect to the Uchuva-1 and Orca-1 wells, Bayón also highlighted that in In these areas there is additional potential between 10.5 and 12.5 terapies. However, to confirm them additional exploration into the blocks is required.

(See: For Campetrol, if we lose confidence, the investments will go away).

The manager explained that they are working to ensure that the first gas molecules from these blocks are put on the market before 2030.

Regarding future offshore exploration, the Ecopetrol president noted that exploration will be carried out in blocks COL-1, 2, 6 and 7 in which the total potential is estimated at 84 terapies and whose process is being carried out in conjunction with the partner Occidental Petroleum (Oxy).

Although these blocks are at a depth of 4,000 meters of water block, The leader of the state oil company indicated that there is technology to develop this exploration that will begin in the first half of 2024.

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