Colombian firm makes new oil find | WPN World People News

State oil company Ecopetrol announced a new crude discovery at an exploratory well in Tisquirama, a block in northern Colombia that has been in commercial production for more than a half century.

The new well, located in Cesar province and known as Tisquirama Este-1, has initial production potential of 624 barrels per day, Ecopetrol said in a statement Wednesday.

That is equivalent to more than a fourth of the block's current output of 2,400 barrels per day, according to Ecopetrol, which fully owns and operates Tisquirama.

The company said it will conduct "extensive production tests and drill two appraisal wells" in the coming months to "determine this find's potential and scale".

Ecopetrol also predicted that the new find will "significantly increase production at the Tisquirama block", in commercial production since the 1960s.

The oil company, which made nine oil discoveries in 2011, said this latest well "gives further impetus to the task of increasing production, with the goal of reaching 1 million barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2015 and 1.3 million in 2020".

Ecopetrol, which is Colombia's largest company and accounts for more than 60 percent of the Andean nation's crude output, also has operations in Brazil, Peru and the US.

Source:South America News.Net