Ecopetrol hit oil in its fifth well in the Caño Sur contract, in the central Colombian department of Meta, the petroleum company announced Monday.
The latest field discovery, the Trasgo-1 well in the San Martin de los Llanos municipality, is the first in the western block of the Caño Sur exploration and production contract.
Drilling in the Trasgo-1 well, which began August 4, reached a depth of 2,934 feet and returned good crude oil saturation.
Initial tests yielded 120 barrels of 13.8 degrees API crude oil per day.
“This new find proves the potential of the Cano Sur Block and of the Llanos Orientales Basin, one of the regions with the highest exploratory activity currently, source of our growth in heavy crude oils and key to achieve the production goal of one million clean barrels per day in 2015 and 1.3 million barrels in 2020,” said Ecopetrol’s CEO, Javier Gutierrez.
The Caño Sur contract, which was signed in June 2005 with the National Hydrocarbon Agency, designates Ecopetrol as the sole operator in the Llanos Orientales Basin. Following the February purchase of Royal Dutch Shell’s 50% stake in the Caño Sur Block, Ecopetrol also holds 100% of the drilling rights.
Prior findings in the Caño Sur Block were the Mito-1, Fauno-1, Pinocho-1 and CSE8-ST1 wells.
Ecopetrol is among the world’s 40 largest petroleum companies. The state-run company generates more than 60% of Colombia’s petroleum production and is the owner of the two largest refineries in the country.