09-08-05 Colombia's state oil company Empresa Colombiana de Petroleos, or Ecopetrol, said it's very close to signing a joint venture with US oil major Occidental Petroleum to increase output at the country's oldest field.
Mature oil field La Cira-Infantas, discovered in 1918, has reserves in place of 3.5 bn barrels, but the multinational in association with Ecopetrol could extract a total of 200 mm barrels of oil, said Isaac Yanovich, the head of Ecopetrol.
"Total investments will range between $ 400 to $ 500 mm," said Yanovich.

The field, located in the north-eastern state of Santander, has produced since the last century about 700 mm barrels of oil. Key to promote the field is its location. La Cira-Infantas is only 15 km from the country's largest refinery, Barrancabermeja.
Meanwhile, Ecopetrol said to select another international partner to increase oil production at the Tibu field, located in the north-eastern state of Norte de Santander next to the Venezuelan border. The mature field will require total investments of $ 200 mm to extract about 90 mm barrels of crude oil.

According to Ecopetrol's officials, six international firms were chosen in a preliminary selection process.
"The idea is to attract a partner with cutting-edge technology that can extract more oil from those fields," Pedro Restrepo, Ecopetrol's exploration vice president told. Meanwhile, Ecopetrol and its associates have already drilled 16 oil wells this year.
"But we will accomplish our goal of drilling 25 wells," added Yanovich.

Yanovich stressed that drilling work at Ecopetrol's Cagui well, located in the north-eastern state of Norte de Santander, has ended. The company will now undertake additional studies to determine the quality of the hydrocarbons. Cagui has contingent resources of 34 mm barrels of oil.
Colombia, Latin America fifth-largest oil producer, expects oil production to slip to an average of 510,000 bpd this year, down from an all-time high of 830,000 bpd reached in 1999. If Colombia fails to ramp up output at existing fields and to find new development areas, it will have to begin importing oil in 2011, hurting its trade and fiscal accounts, officials have said.