Hocol SA, a subsidiary of Ecopetrol, confirmed a new discovery of natural gas in the Atlantic in the Merecumbé 1 well located 40 kilometers from Barranquilla, in an area near Ponedera. “
In this way, we demonstrate our commitment to increasing the country’s gas reserves and ensuring the supply of this fuel for the Caribbean departments, ”stated Rafael Guzmán, President of Hocol. This finding is in addition to the one announced last May at the Bullerengue 3 well, located 30 kilometers from Barranquilla and at the Bullerengue Sur-1 well that operates in the vicinity of Sabanalarga.
As reported by the company, the Merecumbé 1 well was successfully drilled between November 5 and 27, 2019, and short tests of the well were carried out in various phases during the first half of this year.
“The records and information taken during drilling indicate that the well encountered natural gas at intervals of conglomeratic sandstones and some layers of limestone from the Chengue Eocene Age Formation,” the company said in a statement.
Guzmán affirms that this new discovery confirms the potential of the Sinú San Jacinto folded belt, one of the focus areas of Hocol’s exploration strategy to increase gas reserves and strengthen exploration in Colombia, with companies such as Lewis Energy.
Hocol has a 50% participation in the SSJN1 contract and leads geology and geophysics activities; For its part, Lewis Energy Colombia Inc. is the operator of the area with the other 50% and leads drilling, completion, testing and production activities. Hocol’s gas production volume in the Atlantic is 23 MMSCFD (million cubic feet).
Barranquilla’s residential and commercial sector consumes an average of 40 million cubic feet per day (Mpcd), so it would be producing approximately 58% of the gas for these sectors. For his part, the president of Naturgas, Orlando Cabrales, said that he welcomed the discovery of natural gas in the Merecumbé 1 well, since it proves that Colombia has a very large hydrocarbon potential both in unconventional fields, in the Caribbean Sea, and in conventional deposits.
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