Frontera Energy Corporation on Thursday announced a successful discovery in Colombia in the Lower Magdalena Valley, striking a combination of light oil and natural gas. The company said it looks forward to further successes in Colombia, Ecuador and Guyana.
Richard Herbert, Chief Executive Officer of Frontera, commented: “We are excited that the first well with our partner Parex in the Lower Magdalena Valley has been a success. Testing results from the La Belleza-1 well on the VIM-1 block are very encouraging, especially given the limited capacity of the testing equipment on site. The well’s combination of light oil and natural gas complements our overall portfolio mix of light and heavy crudes and our strategic goal to increase the portion of natural gas in our production profile.”
He said the company recently started the drilling of the Asai-1 exploration well on the Guama block, also in the Lower Magdalena Valley where they are targeting liquids and natural gas. “Over the course of 2020 and beyond, Frontera will look to increase its natural gas production in the Lower Magdalena Valley where we have excess gas processing capacity at the La Creciente field. It is encouraging to start 2020 with exploration success, as we are targeting significant high impact exploration activities in Colombia, Ecuador and Guyana this year,” he said.
The company’s release said that the La Belleza-1 exploration well on the VIM-1 block was drilled to a total depth of 11,680 feet. “A total of 179 feet (155 feet total vertical depth) of potential hydrocarbon bearing reservoir was encountered in the Cienaga De Oro formation and drilling operations were stopped to allow testing of the open hole section. The well was tested under natural flowing conditions and over a 328-hour period, the well produced a total of 32,728 bbls of 43-degree API oil, 147 mmcf of natural gas and 3,996 barrels of water,” the company said.
The joint venture partners are said to be evaluating options to drill one or two additional delineation wells in the second half of 2020 from the existing La Belleza well pad.
In Guyana, Frontera and CGX Energy and are expected to drill an exploration well offshore by November of this year after deferring its 2019 target for spudding a well at the Corentyne Block. CGX is operator at the block under a joint operating agreement with Frontera. CGX has a 66.667% participating interest in the block, with Frontera holding a 33.333% interest.
