An emerging markets fund manager predicts that within ten years Colombia could be producing more oil than neighboring Venezuela, in an interview with CityWire.
Francisco Alzuru, who runs the Hansberger Emerging Latin America Fund, predicts that “within ten years time you could potentially have Colombia producing more oil than their neighbour Venezuela.”
Alzuru commented that while Venezuelan oil production is declining, Colombia’s production is “growing tremendously.”
Colombia’s oil industry is booming thanks in part to security improvements and business-friendly policies implemented by President Alvaro Uribe, who gained office in 2002.
Alzuru notes that Pacific Rubiales, the Canadian-listed oil firm, has increased production from “a few thousand barrels a day, to over 100,000 barrels a day … just from the recovery of oil wells that were given up in the 70s and 80s due to the guerrilla issue and also the prices of oil.”
Figures released by Pacific Rubiales in January show that the company expects the oil output of its Colombian operations to increase to 400,000 or 500,000 barrels a day in the next four years.