The Board of Directors of Ecopetrol approved the commercial viability of the Southwest Quifa Field, located in the Meta district, within the Quifa Partnership Contract Area.

The commercial viability declaration means that, after evaluating the field´s potential and the results obtained during the exploration and testing stages, Ecopetrol has decided to take part in the commercial development of the field together with the operator, Meta Petroleum.

The Quifa Partnership Contract was signed on December 22, 2003. Ecopetrol covers 30% of all costs and investments, and receives a minimum share of 40% of the hydrocarbons after royalties.

The Southwest Quifa field has a commercial area of approximately 40 thousand hectares (99 thousand acres) with 11 producing wells to date that yield over 2,300 barrels of heavy crude per day. The development plan estimates an average daily production of 30,000 barrels a day by 2011.

The Quifa field is adjacent to Rubiales, a field in which Ecopetrol and Pacific Rubiales (producer and owner of Meta Petroleum) have shares.

At present, Ecopetrol has an average daily production at the Meta district of approximately 198 thousand barrels per day, mainly from direct fields and shares in fields run jointly with other companies.

The commercial viability of the Southwest Quifa field is part of Ecopetrol´s strategy to incorporate reserves in adjacent areas to production fields and contributes towards reaching a production of one million equivalent barrels (oil and natural gas) by 2015.

Tags: Ecopetrol