Colombia Confident it can Attract Investments of at Least $500 million in Unconventionals

Colombia expects this year’s auction of its unconventional oil and gas reserves to attract at least $500 million in investments.

Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Exxon Mobil Corp., and Chevron Corp. have shown interest in Colombia’s reserves of gas trapped in shale rock and other unconventional energy sources, said government Hydrocarbons Director Julio Cesar Vera Diaz yesterday.

“The blocks could easily draw hundreds of millions of dollars,” Vera Diaz said. “We have potential.”

President Juan Manuel Santos is taking advantage of energy and metals reserves to draw record international spending to Colombia, including by billionaires Eike Batista and Carlos Slim. Improved security has enabled Ecopetrol SA, Colombia’s largest oil producer, and other companies to explore for fuel in areas that were off-limits a decade ago, Ecopetrol Chief Executive Officer Javier Gutierrez said this week.  Ecopetrol, which is Colombia’s largest oil company, is already in the early stages of searching for unconventionals in the country.

About 30 of 109 onshore blocks the nation will auction for exploration and production hold natural gas trapped in shale rock formations or oil shales, Vera Diaz said.   He also mentioned that Colombia aims to surpass Argentina in unconventional resources production and that “we have the conditions to guarantee investment.”