CAPITAL: Bogota

MONETARY UNIT: Peso

REFINING CAPACITY: 248,850 b/cd

PRODUCTION: 742,800 b/d

OIL RESERVES: 2.58 million bbl

GAS RESERVES: 6,937 bcf

Colombia attempted to attract operators to more of its less-explored basins by sweetening fiscal terms, but dwindling oil prices and guerrilla actions against pipelines turned some operators away.

Ecopetrol said guerrillas blew up the Cano Limon-Covenas oil pipeline 80 times in 1998, bringing to 586 the number of incidents since 1982. The guerrillas wanted the oil industry nationalized.

Another dynamite attack suspended flow in the Ocensa pipeline, in operation only a year. The 820 km line had carried 350,000 b/d to Covenas from the BP-operated Cusiana/Cupiagua oil fields complex in the Llanos basin.

The government approved the award of several new contract areas during the year, but rig activity fell to fewer than 10 units in late 1998 from 18 in late 1997, Baker Hughes reported.

Upstream developments

Here`s a regional review of Colombian upstream developments in 1998:

- Middle Magdalena Valley. Gas operations got a boost with start-up of Amoco-operated Opon gas-condensate field 125 miles north of Bogota. Ecopetrol was to buy as much as 100 MMcfd of its gas and condensate.

- Lower Magdalena Valley. Coplex`s Petrolex Energy said the Compae-2 well on the 224,000-acre Maracas association contract area flowed 7.9 MMcfd of gas on a 43/64 in. choke. CAOF was 20 MMcfd. Logs indicated 298 ft of gross pay in Socuy and La Luna.

- Guajira basin. Texaco`s Texas Petroleum Co. and Shell E&P Colombia BV won rights to explore the Macuira and Nazareth blocks off Guajira province. The blocks cover a combined 51,000 sq km in as much as 3,000 m of water. Texpet`s Chuchupa, Ballena, and Riohacha gas fields were producing 500 MMcfd of gas.

- Upper Magdalena Valley. Emerald Energy plc`s Gigante 1A well on the Matambo contract area tested three intervals. The two deepest intervals flowed formation water and small amounts of heavy oil. The shallowest interval, at 15,372-15,430 ft, flowed 2,250 b/d of 33.1° gravity oil and 950 Mcfd of gas on an 80/64 in. choke. Emerald said later engineering studies indicated that the Tetuan reservoir could flow an unrestricted 6,000-8,500 b/d on reconfiguration of the well.