Colombia: Self-sufficient for now

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Despite disappointing results in 2007, foreign investment in Colombian oil exploration is expected to continue climbing in 2008. Private investment is expected to reach $3.5 billion, while the state-controlled Ecopetrol will invest $3.8 billion in exploration, infrastructure and production.

Industry sources say a record 73 exploratory wells were drilled in the country in 2007, but there were no major finds. The most expensive one was the $135-million dry hole that Petrobras, Ecopetrol and Exxon drilled in deep water off Colombia’s Caribbean coast.

With all that activity, Colombia’s average daily production barely managed to keep pace with the previous year’s, with a year-ending average of 544,000 barrels a day, up from 527,000 barrels in 2006.

Investment has increased in Colombia because of improved security and favorable terms being offered by the National Hydrocarbons Agency. But industry sources say the country is in dire need of a major find if the investment flow is to continue. Colombia will lose its self-sufficiency in energy in seven years unless such a discovery is made, Mining and Energy Minister Hernan Martinez told El Tiempo newspaper of Bogota.

-- Chris Kraul in Bogota