In Colombia, oil reserves are only enough for approximately 7.6 years. For this reason, oil companies are working on the search for black gold. The most recent discovery was made by the Canadian company Parex Resources, which reported three discoveries in wells in Casanare and Arauca.

One of these was in the Capachos block well, located in the municipality of Tame, Arauca. The company had been carrying out excavations since 2019 and has already started oil injection works through the pipelines.

The other discovery was made in Villanueva, municipality of Casanare, which produces 1,800 barrels of heavy oil daily. The third discovery was in the municipality of Paz de Ariporo, which is still in the productivity analysis phase, but is expected to start operations in the fourth quarter.

Parex Resources expects to continue drilling to increase oil reserves for the country. Currently, there are 117 exploration contracts whose viability is likely to meet short-term needs. For this reason, the Ministry of Mines and Energy has said that it will not sign any newer exploration and exploitation contracts.

In Colombia, the oil business is largely dominated by one player, which is Ecopetrol, Colombia’s state-owned company. However, beyond Ecopetrol, the oil extraction business is also made up of other competitors, mostly foreigners with local operations.

In production, the cake is divided as follows. Colombia’s crude oil production has been increasing daily and is already at 752,294 barrels (June 2022 report); of these, 544,400 barrels per day are produced by Ecopetrol, and the remaining, about 20 companies that make up the crude oil business. This means that Ecopetrol has 72.4% of the oil market share, only in production, and the rest is generated by the other companies.