Petrobras Makes Natural Gas Discovery Off Colombia’s Coast

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Brazilian state-owned oil company Petrobras S.A. (NYSE:PBR) and Colombia’s integrated energy company Ecopetrol S.A. (NYSE:EC) have confirmed a natural gas discovery at the Uchuva-2 well off Colombia's coast. Uchuva-2 is a deepwater well with natural gas previously discovered in the nearby Uchuva-1 well, drilled in 2022.

According to a Petrobras official, the promising area off Colombia's coast could justify a large project to supply natural gas to the Andean country and for exports.

"This well adds relevant information for the development of a new area of exploration and production in Colombia, reinforcing the volumetric potential for gas in the region," Petrobras said in a securities filing.

Colombia’s newly discovered gas is likely to find a ready regional market.LAM gas imports are projected to soar to 12 billion ft3/d from current levels of 5.2 billion ft3/d by 2035. Latin America has continued to lag in the global LNG boom, with only Peru and Trinidad & Tobago exporting gas. Latin America and the Caribbean remain a net gas importer, thanks to declining production from mature fields, inhospitable terrain, and a lack of regional gas interconnections.

Brazil remains the largest LNG importer in Latin America despite having the largest regasification capacity in Latin America. Indeed, Brazil is the sixth largest importer of U.S. LNG globally. Changing weather patterns coupled with unpredictable weather have forced Latin America’s largest economy to rebalance its energy mix with gas-generated power meeting shortfalls in its hydropower production. Brazil is likely to continue to transition from hydropower to thermal gas plants when it launches a power auction later in the year.

In another Latin American deepwater project, Ecopetrol S.A. and U.S. shale producer Occidental Petroleum Corp. (NYSE:OXY) are planning to drill an offshore oil well off Colombia’s waters in seas roughly 3,900 meters (close to 13,000 feet) deep before the year is out, Bloomberg has reported. Dubbed Komodo-1, the ultra-deepwater well will qualify as the deepest offshore oil well in the world, beating Angola’s block 48 well which holds the current world-record water depth of 3,628 m (11,903 ft).