Colombia’s hydrocarbons agency, ANH, reported that oil reserves in the country are above 2 billion barrels, newspaper El Espectador reported Wednesday.
With the new figure, Colombia now places fifth in South American oil reserves, behind Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina and Ecuador.
Armando Zamora, director of ANH, said that the agency hopes for further increases as the year progresses, as well as for production to exceed the current target of 1 million barrels a day, which would place Colombia third in South American oil production, behind Venezuela and Brazil.
In April, Colombia’s petroleum production stood at 903,000 barrels per day.
Zamora added that Colombia continues to have the set goal of petroleum self-sufficiency after 2020.