Omimex waits on Ecopetrol to start US$50mn Nare development

The Colombian subsidiary of Texas-based oil company Omimex is waiting for state oil company Ecopetrol to declare commerciality of an oil find in the middle Magdalena basin to start production, local press reported Omimex's Colombia president Segundo Gonzalez as saying. The Bajo Rio field lies under the Magdalena river, and is part of Omimex's Nare association contract with Ecopetrol, in which investment from the two companies will be US$40mn-50mn this year, Gonzalez told BNamericas last November. The investment would be split between first phase spending of US$28mn to produce 22 million barrels (mb) from proven reserves and second phase spending to produce 23mb from reserves that are as yet unproved, local press quoted him as saying. First phase work would be on the Jazmin field, with first production scheduled for the second half of 2004, depending on when Ecopetrol declares commerciality.