The total proven reserves of crude oil in Colombia are now at 2.05 billion barrels, up from 1.79 billion last year, according to an independent evaluation presented by the Mines and Energy Ministry on Monday.
Proven reserves refer to the oil that is very likely (around 90%) to be recoverable under existing conditions within a country.
Julio Cesar Vera, the Mines and Energy Ministry’s director of hydrocarbons, said that total reserves, including proven, probable and possible had reached 3.1 billion barrels, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Colombia can now rely on domestically produced oil until at least 2020, said Vera, by which time it is predicted that new reserves will have been found.
Colombia’s oil production was up 18% to an average 763,000 barrels a day (bpd) in March, from 647,000 bpd in the same month last year, according to figures released Tuesday by the National Hydrocarbons Agency.
Even given these new figures, Colombia has a long way to go to live up to recent predictions that it could overtake neighbouring Venezuela’s 3.1 million bpd production within ten years.