A geological perspective on Colombia’s exploration potential

Colombia

Flover Rodríguez Portillo, executive director of the Colombian Association of Energy Geologists and Geophysicists (ACGGP), talks to The Energy Year about Colombia’s exploration potential and challenges from a geological perspective. The ACGGP is a non-profit organisation that fosters and strengthens personal, technical and social relationships between professionals linked to earth sciences.

Can you discuss Colombia’s exploration potential and challenges, both onshore and offshore, from a geological perspective?
In Colombia there is a clear need to diversify income sources due to the economic dependence on hydrocarbons. A significant part of our exports is based on hydrocarbons as well. Over the past century, Colombia has demonstrated substantial hydrocarbons exploration and production potential, with ongoing discoveries contributing to the interest of companies seeking to manage risk effectively.
The Llanos region, particularly Piedemonte (Foothills), stands out as a prolific gas area, meeting a significant portion of the country’s gas consumption. Ecopetrol’s recent announcement of expanding gas exploration to the northern Piedemonte region presents promising opportunities for further reserves incorporation. However, the challenge lies in the looming demand-supply crossover for gas projected around 2025-2026.
Onshore exploration offers several opportunities, such as in the lower Magdalena River Valley and the Caribbean region, where significant gas discoveries have been made. The infrastructure in place facilitates the easy integration of these discoveries into the grid, reducing investor risk. Offshore exploration, though promising, requires substantial investment in infrastructure and market development to ensure a viable market for gas production.
Despite challenges, Ecopetrol’s offshore discoveries demonstrate the basin’s potential, which is reinforced by the company’s expertise gained from international partnerships. The recent drilling of Orca Norte 1, Ecopetrol’s first fully operated well, underscores the ongoing potential of the basin and the need for a conducive investment environment for further development.

What are the challenges in ensuring the economic viability of gas exploration, production and commercialisation?
The key lies in building strategic alliances, which we have successfully accomplished with major players such as Occidental, Petrobras and Shell, indicating the interest in Colombia’s offshore potential. The upcoming drilling of the Uchuva delimiter well by Ecopetrol, supported by robust technical analysis, further reinforces our optimistic outlook.
However, the urgency to address Colombia’s gas supply challenge requires swift action. While past delays are regrettable, the focus now is on proactive advancement. Middle Magdalena Valley Basin has a proven source rock, and the National Hydrocarbon Agency in 2019 concluded that prospective and recoverable resources from the unconventional play may add 50 times the actual gas reserves of Colombia.
The national government, alongside regulatory agencies, are actively working to enhance regulatory frameworks to expedite offshore exploration. Infrastructure development, exemplified by the ongoing construction of a hub in Barranquilla, underscores our commitment to intensified drilling activities.

What techniques are currently being applied to enhance oil production?
EOR techniques are being implemented to support the country’s production, and Ecopetrol has been performing interesting work in Bucaramanga along with the Innovation & Technology Center ICP, its research partner.
They have been testing techniques and technologies to improve production. This has been seen in the Chichimene field, which has been a successful case study for EOR techniques. The field was declining naturally at the time, and with EOR, it has come back to life.
The average recovery percentage can be 22-25%, which is not bad. There are even fields in Colombia whose recovery factor is close to 40-45%. It depends on the conditions, the characteristics of the field and the basins, among other elements.

What are the objectives of the association, and what is your fundamental role in exploration and production?
Our clear objective is to be representative. The association, with 67 years of history, underwent a significant transformation in 2019 amid industry challenges, which forced us to rethink our role and to ask whether we should cover a wider array of subjects, which we started doing. This resulted in us becoming a platform for professional dialogue and training focused on three main lines of work.
The first is the historical and traditional one, which is technical. The second one is regional education. Today this is one of the most important programmes and pillars of the ACGGP. In 2017, we created the National Pedagogy Programme, which explains how the activities are carried out in the regions.
By building this trust and by making communities feel part of the project, we are removing a first wall of unfamiliarity, which is perhaps the most significant one. This programme has reached more than 25,000 people around the country over the last three years, contributing to knowledge exchange and strengthening the capacities of the community, leaders, administrative authorities and the country in general.
The third pillar is public policy. We are a more representative organisation today, and the national government listens to us. We began to contact the members of congress and design training programmes for them because there is little technical knowledge useful for decision-making, and at the end of the day, that is where the country’s public policy is discussed and decided upon.
We also have a small group working on new ideas to propose public policy proposals requiring geological knowledge useful for the development of Colombia, such as knowledge on groundwater, energy sources from the subsurface and climate action.
In Colombia there are around 10,000-13,000 geologists, engineering geologists and geoscientists. As of today, we represent 5% of them, and our aim is to increase that figure. We want more professionals to find in the association a place where they recognise themselves, feel represented and feel they can come to learn but also be listened to and have a space to contribute if they want to do so.

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