Although Ecopetrol is the largest oil company that operates in Colombia, other companies that have seen the country as an ideal destination for their investments are also present in the national territory. This is the case of the Canadian Frontera Energy, Parex Resources, Canacol Energy and Gran Tierra Energy, as well as the Latin American GeoPark.
The magnitude of Ecopetrol is reflected in the profit of more than 1,900 million dollars it had during the third quarter of this year, while its production averaged 720,400 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boed).
(Also read: Ecopetrol has enough natural gas to double Colombia’s reserves)
But beyond Ecopetrol, for some of these five companies the financial results during the third quarter revealed the good moment that the industry is going through due to higher oil pricess, despite the blockades that affected the production figures of the fields.
Among these companies, GeoPark, which has a presence in five Latin American countries, but its strength is in Colombia, led in terms of profits by posting a record $73.4 million in the quarternearly double the $37 million a year ago.
“The third quarter financial results reflect the hard work of GeoPark’s most important asset, our people. Once once more, in 2022 that hard work paid off with a drilling program that produced record financial results”, highlighted Andrés Ocampo, the company’s CEO.
We have had successful drilling results that have resulted in oil discoveries.
It is followed by Parex Resources with earnings of 65.6 million dollars, although they fell 3.4 percent compared to what was reported in the same quarter last year. While Gran Tierra Energy earned $38.6 milliona growth of 10.4 percent.
“This quarter we continue to deliver positive results that exceed our third quarter 2021 performance and, as we previously announced, we have had successful drilling results that have resulted in oil discoveries in multiple blocks“, said Imad Mohsen, CEO of Parex Resources.
As for Canacol Energy and Frontera Energy, the two companies saw red numbers during the quarter with losses of $4.5 million and $26.8 million, respectively. A year ago, these two companies celebrated profits of $8.8 million and $38.5 million, respectively.
Blockades in the fields
Regarding production figures, Parex Resources led during the third quarter with 51,091 boed, up 7.5 percent. The company only operates in Colombia and its goal for this year is to produce 52,000 to 53,000 boed
GeoPark’s added 38,396 boed, an increase of 1.4 percent. 86 percent of these barrels come from the assets it has in the country. For its part, Gran Tierra Energy, which three years ago diversified its operations to Ecuador, produced 5 percent more to 30,391 barrels of oil per day (bpd).
These three companies reported that in the third quarter had to face temporary blockades in the fields they operatelocated in areas of the Eastern Plains and Putumayo, which negatively affected the production figures.
(Also read: What is the solution at the end of the contracts for the provision of services?)
Frontera Energy’s production rose 12.6 percent to 41,033 boed, although compared to the previous quarter, it fell slightly due to delays in work carried out in the Quifa block and operational challenges in other fields. Of the total, 97 percent of natural gas and oil was produced in Colombiasince the company also has operations in Ecuador and Guyana (in the exploration phase).
By the end of the year, Frontera Energy expects its production to be between 41,000 and 43,000 boe d. “We are meeting our production and ebitda targets (173.2 million dollars) so far this year, while controlling our operating costs, despite inflationary pressures throughout the industry,” said Orlando Cabrales, executive director.
Finally, the Canadian Canacol Energy, which bet only on natural gas and it is now the second largest producer in Colombia following Ecopetrolreported 186.7 million standard cubic feet of gas per day, a three percent decrease due to a drop in demand for sales volumes during the third quarter of the year.
