Pacific Rubiales Signs Colombia Pipe Deal

Canada’s Pacific Rubiales Energy Corp has entered into a $190m agreement with Colombia’s Oleoducto Central (Ocensa) to acquire preferential rights to use capacity on the latter’s pipeline system. It will be allowed to ship up to 160m barrels of oil for a 10 year period beginning February 1. The pair also executed a related transportation contract to regulate the operating aspects of transporting oil through the Ocensa system. These volumes will be delivered by the company to Ocensa at either the Cusiana station or the El Porvenir station and will be pumped through to the Covenas terminal for which the company will pay the transportation tariff as set by the Ministry of Mines and Energy of Colombia for each segment of the Ocensa pipeline. “Given the anticipated growth of production from the entire Llanos basin and other basins in Colombia, and the limitations on existing transportation infrastructure, this agreement is a key initiative for us to secure the continuous flow of oil production from the Rubiales and Quifa blocks at a low and competitive transportation cost,” says Pacific Rubiales CEO Ronald Pantin. Pacific Rubiales owns 100% of Meta Petroleum Corp, a Colombian oil operator working with Ecopetrol.