Apr. 6, 1998 State-owned Colombian Ecopetrol is stepping up its hunt for oil and has signed several exploration agreements.
Ecopetrol has signed 6 contracts with U.S. and British oil giants to explore areas of north-east and central Colombia, where preliminary information indicates the existence of hydrocarbons. Some of these discoveries have occurred in fractured limestone deposits, similar to the oil deposits found in Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela.
Ecopetrol Vice President Victor Perez explained that the limestone acts as a seal to prevent the petroleum from spilling out, by forming cavities in which the oil is deposited.

The limestone turns into crystallised rocks that, when fractured, allows for the passing of the hydrocarbon, which is then converted into rock that acts like a storing house for the oil.

Ecopetrol also is signing four association contracts with transnational companies to explore for petroleum on the sea floor near the coasts of the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.
In this area, only Texas Petroleum, in association with Ecopetrol, has been working to exploit the gas near the coasts of La Guajira, in the Atlantic ocean.
Sources at the Ministry of Mining and at Ecopetrol say that two of these contracts were signed with Texas Petroleum, and two others with Amoco, but Shell is also reportedly interested in this type of project.
In addition, in the next 6 months, 27 new exploration projects will be sold off in a public auction. In exchange for more exploration agreements, the government also offered petroleum companies a devolution of the contracts.

Ecopetrol currently has 16 production contracts with a devolution of the contracts to restructure them and improve their profitability.
The likely devolution of the areas currently under contract will benefit BP and Occidental Petroleum. BP has asked the government for greater profitability for the project it is developing in association with Ecopetrol in the Piedemonte Llanero, in north-eastern Colombia, claiming that the costs of exploration are extremely high.
At the same time, Occidental Petroleum says that it has not been able to explore the Samore Bloc due to the ongoing conflict with the U'wa indigenous community, which opposes oil exploration on their lands.

The government has tabled legislation in Congress to reform article 58 of the Constitution, which permits the expropriation of land without indemnisation through an administrative procedure when the Executive considers it necessary.
Such action has never been taken, although some countries that have asked for greater guarantees of protection for their investors see the opposition of indigenous groups as an obstacle to their projects.

According to Minister of Mining Orlando Cabrales, Colombia must discover at least 2 billion barrels of oil in the next 3 years, otherwise it will be forced to import oil, as occurred in the 1970s.
Colombia has approximately 3.6 bn barrels of oil in reserve, and it produces nearly 800,000 bpd, approximately 300,00 of which are exported.