Canadian energy company Pacific Rubiales boosted its Colombian oil reserves by 52% in 2011, thanks to greater exploration in the country, the company said Thursday.
Pacific Rubiales, the largest oil producer in Colombia, increased proved and probable reserves to 407 million barrels of petroleum equivalent last year, the Toronto-based company said in a statement.
Pacific Rubiales is churning out 240,000 barrels per day at its Rubiales and Quifa fields, located in the eastern province of Meta. Pacific is seeking to increase output by as much as 30% this year, the company’s Colombia president Jose Francisco Arata said.
Colombia, Latin America’s fourth-, has attracted a flood of foreign investment in recent years as government troops beat back armed Marxist and paramilitary groups biggest producer of crude oil behind Venezuela, Mexico and Brazil from energy installations.
The government expects $16 billion in foreign investment this year, most of which will come from oil and mining.