Colombia’s state oil company Ecopetrol said on Thursday it expects group oil production to rise 10.5% to 800,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) in 2012 versus the previous year.
Colombia’s national oil output has ramped up to historic records as easing security concerns have allowed greater exploitation of heavy crude areas in addition to incremental production increases at existing fields.
In an investor presentation, the company said it expected oil production from Ecopetrol SA – which does not include group output from operations outside Colombia – to rise nearly 12% to 750,000 boepd this year.
Production will be focused in the heavy-oil-rich Llanos basin, the company said.
On Wednesday, Ecopetrol said its 2011 net profit rose 85% to 15.44 trillion pesos ($8.65 billion) compared with 2010, pushed up by more output and exports.
Thanks to better security, the Andean country may see as much as $16 billion in foreign direct investment this year, up from nearly $15 billion last year, according to the government.
Resource-rich countries like Colombia have seen their economies expand briskly in recent years thanks in part to high commodity prices while Europe and the United States have struggled to recover from the global crisis of a few years ago.