Eight Colombian oil and gas projects to watch in 2022

BNamericas identifies eight key Colombian oil and gas developments that are expected to make progress in 2022.

8. Sebastopol refinery

Refinería Colombiana Sebastopol aims to award an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for its eponymous refinery project in early 2022. 

The initiative forms part of a proposed US$6bn energy hub that is also expected to include a 135MW cogeneration power station, a PV solar plant and a hydrogen production facility. 

It will be built on a 658ha site at Puerto Berrío on the banks of the Magdalena River in northwestern Antioquia department. 

The refinery will process up to 100,000b/d of crude oil, with 40% of output being diesel, 35% gasoline and 20% jet fuels and naphtha, according to the developer's blueprint. 

Construction is on track to begin in November 2024 and the facility is slated to begin operating in November 2026, Yamile Wilches, project and technical manager at the company, told BNamericas.

7. Cartagena crude interconnection

Colombian state-run oil company Ecopetrol plans to invest US$180mn to increase capacity at its Cartagena refinery on the Caribbean coast.   

The expansion will integrate the refinery's original 80,000b/d crude unit with the avant-garde 165,000b/d Reficar complex that was completed in 2015 at a cost of US$8bn, according to an environmental impact study. It is understood effective capacity will rise to around 200,000b/d from 150,000b/d. 

Construction work is expected to take 41 months, though a completion date has yet to be defined. 

In its latest quarterly report, published on November 9, Ecopetrol said the project was 74% complete. 

On December 9, Ecopetrol said it would invest 8% of its 2022 capex (of between US$4.8 and US$5.8bn) in refining projects, without specifying what they were. 

6. Cartagena LNG expansion

Gas transporter Promigas says it could raise the regasification capacity at its Cartagena liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal by 200Mf3/d within four years as it seeks to meet rising domestic demand for natural gas. 

The Barranquilla-based company has a 51% equity stake in the SPEC consortium that operates the Cartagena terminal, with the remainder held by Dutch tank storage company Royal Vopak.

Technical studies are underway to determine the feasibility of expansion works, the first stage of which could begin in 2022, Promigas said in November.   

Completed in 2016 at a cost of US$427mn, the Cartagena LNG plant includes a 170,000m3 floating storage regasification unit (FSRU) with daily regasification capacity of 400Mf3/d. It is connected to the national gas network via a 9.2km pipeline. SPEC also holds long-term contracts to supply three local gas-fired power plants.

The plans would expand the facility's capacity to 450Mf3/d by the end of 2022 and to 600Mf3/d by late 2025.

5. Barrancabermeja refinery expansion

In February, Ecopetrol said it would invest US$777mn over the next two years to upgrade and modernize its Barrancabermeja refinery.

The works will be aimed at improving water conservation, reducing emissions and raising the quality of fuels, according to the Bogotá-based company. 

Initiatives include a technological upgrade of the refinery's wastewater treatment plant, the refurbishment of water segregation collectors and a sulfur emission control project.

In addition, the company aims to update and expand the facility's moderate hydrocracking unit, allowing it to reduce sulfur content in gasoline to 30ppm (parts per million) in 2025 and 10 parts per million in 2030.

Located in the northern department of Santander, the Barrancabermeja complex is Colombia's largest oil refinery, processing an average of 225,000b/d of crude from 54 distillation units.

4. Pacific LNG

Energy ministry planning unit UMPE is pushing ahead with plans for the US$700mn Pacific LNG project despite an initial tender process having been declared void in October. 

The proposed plant in Buenaventura would vaporize up to 400Mf3/d (million cubic feet per day) while storing up to 170,000m3. A 120km pipeline would connect the facility to a terminal in Yumbo, on the northern outskirts of Cali. Under existing plans, the project is due to be completed in late 2026.

"All projects have risks, costs and benefits, and in this case the benefits are, 'What if we don't have it?'," UPME director Christian Jaramillo told BNamericas. "We clearly see that the alternatives to this project ... are more expensive and not having a solution at all would be really catastrophic."

3. Andes Energy terminal

Developer Andes Energy is aiming to bring online 270MW of gas-fired thermoelectric capacity on Colombia's Pacific coast by 2025, the company's chairman told BNamericas. 

The plant would utilize natural gas sourced from an associated LNG-receiving terminal at Buenaventura port, according to Andes Energy, which is also considering the possibility of using hydrogen. 

In June, US engineering firm Black & Veatch was awarded a contract to carry out feasibility studies for the project. Cali-based Andes Energy is in talks with potential partners and forecasts that total investment will exceed US$700mn.

2. Exxon-Ecopetrol fracking pilots

ExxonMobil and Ecopetrol are awaiting environmental permits to co-develop fracking pilot projects in the Middle Magdalena basin. 

The US major has pledged minimum investments of US$53mn to carry out investigative drilling at the Platero field, located in the Puerto Wilches area of Santander department in the Middle Magdalena Valley basin. 

Meanwhile, Ecopetrol will outlay US$84mn for its nearby Kalé project. The companies will be allowed to drill a maximum of two horizontal wells each. The pilots are expected to begin in the second half of 2022, pending the approval of environmental permits from licensing authority ANLA.

1. Shell-Ecopetrol offshore plans (and others)

Shell and Ecopetrol are expected to jointly drill their Gorgon-2 offshore well in the coming weeks as they seek to assess the potential of the Fuerte Sur, Purple Angel and Col-5 blocks.

Other offshore areas earmarked for exploration campaigns in 2022 are Uchuva-1 in GuaOff-10  – a joint venture between Ecopetrol and Petrobras – and Cumbia-1, which is shared by Chevron subsidiary Noble Energy and Shell. 

In September, a subsidiary of US oil and gas company Occidental Petroleum secured exploration and production contracts for four blocks off Colombia's Caribbean coast.

Anadarko Colombia, as the unit is known, successfully requested that technical evaluation agreements (TEA) for blocks COL-1, COL-2, COL-6 and COL-7 be converted into E&P licenses. The areas cover 1.6mn hectares and are expected to require investments of US$1.4bn.