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A Pipeline to Prosperity for Colombia

  • July 28, 2009

Deep in the interior of Colombia is one of the country’s largest construction projects: the pipeline, power plant and processing facilities at the Rubiales oil field deep in the country’s interior.

John Derrick, our director of research, and portfolio manager Evan Smith visited the Rubiales oil field last week to check out this huge infrastructure project. The pipeline is expected to start carrying crude in a couple of weeks.

Last week, director of research John Derrick and portfolio manager Evan Smith visited the Rubiales oil field in Colombia. The field and its surrounding facilities are one of the largest construction projects in Colombia and will play an important role in whether Colombia can turn around its oil production which has been declining since 1999. In figures released on July 23, the Colombian government reported that the field holds as much as 500 million barrels of oil in reserves, making it the largest oil reserve in Colombia.
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Located in the eastern province of Meta, the Rubiales field is a city unto itself. More than 3,000 contract workers live on-site and 600 soldiers are stationed there to provide security.

Last week the Colombian government raised its reserves estimate for the Rubiales field to 500 million barrels of oil, a fivefold increase from the previous estimate.

Rubiales is now producing 60,000 to 70,000 barrels a day. The field is expected to increase its production capacity to 115,000 barrels a day this year and 165,000 barrels a day in 2010.

The new production may help Colombia reverse its decade-long trend of declining production. It produced about 600,000 barrels of oil per day in 2008, down from its peak of 830,000 barrels per day in 1999.

The pipeline will replace the current transportation system – 1,400 trucks running 24 hours a day. At $15 per barrel, trucking is an expensive way to get the crude to market. The pipeline will cut transportation costs to $8 per barrel.

Colombia’s government has made a considerable effort to attract foreign investment to boost its oil industry. The Rubiales field is a partnership between Colombia’s national oil company Ecopetrol and Pacific Rubiales Energy Corp., based in Canada.

Contrast this to neighboring Venezuela, where the Chávez government has created an uncertain business environment by seizing and nationalizing the assets of a number of international oil companies.

Similar to Jayant Bhandari’s trip to research gold mining prospects in Northeast Colombia (Read About Jayant’s Trip Here), our team returned with a favorable opinion of the progress taking place in Colombia.

The following securities mentioned in the article were held by one or more of U.S. Global Investors family of funds as of 6/30/09:  Pacific Rubiales Energy Corp. 09-510


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