About

Based in Canada, Canacol Energy has made a significant impact on the growing Colombian Energy market in a short space of time, having only launched in the country less than a decade ago. It quickly made movements into Colombia, locating and purchasing areas with potential hydrocarbon reserves within a year of the business formation date. Since then, the story of Canacol Energy has been one of both expansion and consolidation, and they now own 3.7 million acres of prospective land in Colombia and Ecuador; they have also produced 18 million net barrels of oil. Key to Canacol’s meteoric rise has been excellent support from its legal team, which have been at the forefront of the large number of agreements and deals necessary to explore, acquire, test and exploit Colombia’s hydrocarbon deposits. This is an ongoing process, and in June 2017 Canacol announced their eighth consecutive successful natural gas discovery, at their Lower Magdalena Basin facility. This is part of the VIM 21 exploration and production contract, which the company has a 100% operated working interest in, and is set to have a further positive impact on the company’s already impressive balance sheet. Indeed, Canacol has been somewhat of an outlier in terms of energy companies currently, as it is performing very strongly at a time when low commodity prices have affected others in the market particularly badly. This can be attributed to the Canacol’s wise decision in 2014 to refocus away from oil and towards natural gas production, and towards this end the company is in the process of constructing a gas pipeline to the Colombian port of Cartagena in order to take advantage of attractive gas prices. This major infrastructure operation is a complex undertaking that will require the legal team to again prove their abilities in negotiation, contracting and labour matters. The department’s track record implies it will rise to the challenge once more.