CERAWEEK-Petrobras exec says offshore Colombia project could find enough gas for exports

A promising area off Colombia's coast where Brazil state-run Petrobras is drilling this year could justify a large project to supply natural gas to the Andean country and for exports, Petrobras' head of exploration and production said on Wednesday. As oil production in Brazil's prolific presalt region is set to plateau in coming years, Petrobras is expanding its horizons to new frontiers including the Equatorial Margin, Colombia and Africa.

A promising area off Colombia's coast where Brazil state-run Petrobras is drilling this year could justify a large project to supply natural gas to the Andean country and for exports, Petrobras' head of exploration and production said on Wednesday.

As oil production in Brazil's prolific presalt region is set to plateau in coming years, Petrobras is expanding its horizons to new frontiers including the Equatorial Margin, Colombia and Africa. At Colombia's Tayrona block, Petrobras and Colombia's state-run Ecopetrol will drill two wells this year following a gas discovery at the Uchuva-1 well in 2022. Future analysis will determine the type of project needed, said Joelson Mendes, Petrobras' chief exploration and production officer.

"There could be more gas than what Colombia needs," Mendes told Reuters in on the sidelines of the CERAWeek energy conference in Houston. Colombia's government has asked Petrobras to speed up the project, he added. He expects the evaluation of the wells to be ready by the beginning of 2025 and the project will then be submitted to Petrobras' board for its consideration. If a positive final investment decision is made, first gas could come earlier than the 2029 goal initially set, Mendes said.

Petrobras will wait for the well appraisal results to plan the project's size and gas commercialization, including the possibility of setting up liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities, the executive said. A gas deficit in the Andean country is growing, leading to more purchases of LNG and possibly imports from Venezuela if an idled gas line is repaired. That $40 million project will need authorization from the U.S. Treasury Department, Ecopetrol CEO Ricardo Roa said this week.

Mendes said that despite exploration success outside Brazil, the company will continue to focus on trying to find new frontiers for oil and gas in its basin, including the environmentally sensitive Equatorial Margin. "According to some scenarios, our production will peak in the next 10 years. We need new discoveries," he said. "Some people think presalt will last forever. It won't."

Petrobras also continues looking at opportunities for exploring in Guyana and Suriname, Mendes said.

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