Shell is drilling ahead on a key exploration well offshore Colombia as it searches for additional gas resources to underpin a potential development in Caribbean waters.

Last year, Shell hit gas with its Gorgon-2 probe in Block COL-5 in about 2400 metres of water, just a few days after Brazilian oil giant Petrobras said it had unlocked a gas play further to the northeast in the Tayrona block with its Uchuva-1 well.