Ecopetrol to award marginal fields contracts on Apr. 13

Colombia's state oil company Ecopetrol will award 10-year contracts on April 13 to develop 10 marginal fields either undeveloped or inactive, company officials told BNamericas. The fields are in the upper and lower Magdalena valley basins and the Catatumbo basin. Ecopetrol had originally planned to award the contracts during the week of February 28, but that date was postponed in order to verify the documentation of the seven bidders under consideration. BNamericas reported earlier this week that Ecopetrol was evaluating bids from only six bidders, but there are actually seven bidders: the Vetra NTC consortium; Sadeven; Petroalamo; the Hydrocol consortium; Cosacol; the Serinpet consortium; and Consorcio Campos de Producción. Bidders could submit offers for as many fields as they wished, but Ecopetrol will not award more than two fields to any one bidder. Vetra NTC bid on the Arjona, Mojada and Oru-Yuca fields; Sadeven bid on the Berlin, Mugrosa, Bravo and Quebrada Roja fields; Petroalamo bid solely on the Hato Nuevo field; Hydrocol bid on the Mojada and Oru-Yuca fields; Cosacol bid on the Mugrosa and Mojada fields; Serinpet bid on the Playón and Toca fields; and Consorcio Campos de Producción bid on Quebrada Roja, Toca, Mugrosa and Mojada. The above bids differ slightly from those that BNamericas reported earlier this week. No bids were presented for the Yanacué field. The tender is an initiative to increase exploration investment. Last year Colombia's total oil production fell 2.4% from 2003 to an average of 528,000 barrels a day.