Opening up: Colombia to offer new frontier acreage
Bogota primed for new open round
Colombia has started preparing bid packages for its next open licensing round, due to be launched in the capital Bogota during the Colombia Oil & Gas show in November next year.
In preparation for the packages, the country's hydrocarbons agency ANH is shooting seismic in the onshore Pacific coast and Caribbean coast areas.
"In the remaining areas, companies will bid for technical evaluation contracts, whereby they will have to carry out the seismic research themselves," ANH director general Armando Zamora told UpstreamOnline.
ANH currently spends about $100 million annually on acquiring geological data on its acreage.
Zamora said that the round will include acreage in frontier exploration areas covering all of Colombia’s 22 basins.
“It is a tall order (and) it is an ambitious target, but we think it is possible,” he added.
Bids will be due and licences awarded during the first half of 2010.
Meanwhile, final bids for Colombia’s 2008 mini-round are due on 27 November.
The mini-round covers 102 blocks and over 60 companies have bought bid documents, Zamora said.