The president of the National Hydrocarbons Agency (ANH), Orlando Velandia, at the ACP Sustainability Forum, made an important announcement to accelerate the production of natural gas in the Colombian offshore (offshore). What is it about?
Given the uncertainty that has been sown in Colombia due to the lack of actions that help unblock the gas production discovered in the Caribbean Sea, the president of the ANH assured that, after putting the accelerator on the regulatory measures – with the CREG – to give greater stability to the offshore industry, It is expected that at the end of 2024 the first energy marketing contracts will be signed.
“I believe that, if we manage to make the regulatory adjustments, At the end of this year we could talk about contracts and incorporating“Velandia indicated.
Furthermore, he indicated that, If progress is made quickly in the definition of flow lines, time could be redeemed “that incorporation horizon, those reserves that were there, more or less, for 2028 – 2029, can be brought approximately two years earlier. Why the need? Not only because of the issue of self-sufficiency, but it is about optimizing resources.”
Velandia assured that there are many tasks to do and indicated that the ANH It is focused on ensuring that the country has the gas, energy and fuel it needs.
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Meanwhile, the leader of the ANH stated that There are issues that continue to be complex to deal with and that affect hydrocarbon exploration and production operations, such as environmental licenses. and prior consultations.
“Every time we are presented with such a difficulty, it is one more challenge, one more task that we have to accomplish. The first point of the strategies that we are implementing to optimize our resources is that there is harmonious and inter-institutional work,” said Orlando Velandia.
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ANH tasks to unblock offshore natural gas projects in Colombia
The president of the National Hydrocarbons Agency explained the tasks that the entity is leading to be able to unblock natural gas projects in the Colombian offshore.
“It is a bit of redeeming time, which we are also doing now from the CREG: because we feel that in the last almost six years the measures have not been taken that, at the time the deposits were discovered – for example, in 2017 in the offshore -, many of the regulatory issues were not carried out,” indicated Velandia.
And, he added, “today the work tables that we have permanently with Ecopetrol, Shell, Anadarko, Petrobras, we are redeeming the time, despite the fact that the tasks were not done in the last six years, since the deposits were discovered to look at the activities from a regulatory point of view.
Orlando Velandia recalled that, in terms of gas, The same criteria are not used for the quantification of reserves..
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“This depends a lot on the contracts that have been signed to make the quantification. We all have the expectation of the important resources that we have discovered in the Caribbean Sea, but there are some regulatory issues in which, unfortunately, no progress was being made.“said the expert.
Velandia mentioned that “it is no longer time to simply look back”, what is needed is to advance in working groups with the companies that have made the discoveries and that are interested in quickly developing them.
This has to do, according to the ANH spokesperson, with making these possible contracts viable so that they can be signed – what they call virtual contracts – and thus unlock the production and incorporation of reserves of this energy.
