Report from La Jolla: Colombia, front and center

— Chilly weather in usually-sunny La Jolla, California, didntt tamp down the spirits of the Latin American Energy Conference this year on May 21-22, although several participants and even a panel moderator offered some good-natured grousing over it. With an attendance of around 180 that included major and independent oil companies, think tanks, energy law firms, consultants and national oil companies, Colombia -- once viewed as a growing source of oil for the hemisphere, now struggling to maintain output -- dominated the gathering as representatives of both National Hydrocarbons Agency ANH and state company Ecopetrol made presentations.

ANH said that later this year it plans to offer a licensing round for 13 offshore natural gas blocks on its Caribbean coast and separately, 13 additional heavy-oil blocks to private companies on a negotiated basis. The country now produces 100,000 b/d of heavy oil but wants to raise that to 200,000 b/d by 2010. Ecopetrol, also a heavy oil player, told Platts it "absolutely" will try to obtain some of those blocks. Meanwhile, Ecopetrol said it will detail in the next month plans to sell about 20% shares in the company to the private sector in an initial public offering. Oscar Bravo, Ecopetrol's coordinator of portfolio and projections, said the first shares are targeted for sale August 27, initially to Colombian investors and later internationally. In addition, top energy officials of Guatemala and Chile said their countries both plan licensing rounds later this year. Clearly, those three countries are not following the path of Venezuela and Ecuador, which are making it increasingly difficult for foreign companies to do business in their oil industries. Speaking of Venezuela, while it once regularly sent representatives of its energy ministry and state company PDVSA as La Jolla conference speakers, it has not done so in recent years. However, top folks from its downstream segment Citgo continue to attend in force. This year, outgoing Citgo CEO Felix Rodriguez, who will soon take over Citgo's German operation next month, told reporters that unlike other US refineries seeking joint ventures with Canadian producers to run more heavy crude through their northern-tier plants, Citgo is content with the runs of its Lemont, Illinois refinery which Rodriguez said already operates on 95% Canadian throughput. Rodriguez also said Citgo uses Platts in pricing its products. But as he continues to perfect his English, some words came out sounding a bit unusual: a compliment to "Platts" emerged as "We like Plock."