LatAmOil: Colombia’s progress on the fracking front

Colombia has taken another step down the road towards development of its unconventional hydrocarbon resources, via the government’s decision to grant provisional approval to the Platero investigative project. According to Reuters, the South American country’s National Hydrocarbons Agency (ANH) announced its decision last week, saying it expected to sign a contract with ExxonMobil on April 8.

In this pilot project, the US-based super-major will use hydraulic fracturing (fracking) techniques to assess the potential of fields in the Valle Medio del Magdalena basin. ANH officials have estimated the value of the deal at $53mn, and an ExxonMobil spokesman told Reuters that his company was “pleased with the agency’s evaluation.”

The US giant will be the second company to undertake a pilot fracking project in Colombia, following state-owned Ecopetrol. The national oil company (NOC) unveiled plans for using this technique at Kalé, another section of Valle Medio del Magdalena, late last year.