The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), the government authority in charge of the bidding procedure in the US, revealed that the most competitive bids in 6 blocks were placed by Ecopetrol in the Central Planning Area Lease sale 216/222 through its US associate, Ecopetrol America.
Repsol E&P and Murphy Exploration and Production are the partners of Ecopetrol in five blocks, while Samson Offshore and Apache are partners in one block.
BOEM will officially award the blocks in the upcoming months, after completing the last review of bids and determining that the companies satisfy the essential conditions for the round. Ecopetrol and its associates placed the bids in the six blocks, wherein the amount aggregates to about US $40 million with approximately US$12.75 million from Ecopetrol.
Deep sea exploration will be carried out in these blocks for hydrocarbon to a water depth of more than 800 m for a period of 7 to 10 years.
The company previously purchased 42 blocks on the U.S. Gulf Coast (Gulf of Mexico) during lease sales and these new blocks are additions to the previous blocks. Addition of these six blocks will expand Ecopetrol’s productive hydrocarbon basin to 122 blocks.
Overall, 56 companies took part in the round of offshore blocks, situated in the Gulf of Mexico, and placed 593 bids on 454 blocks. The area provided was totally 2.4 million ac.
According to the company, the received results strengthen its position in the Gulf of Mexico, which is believed to be a focus area in the internationalization procedure.
Source: http://www.ecopetrol.com.co/
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