On 1 July 2020, the Agencia Nacional de Hidrocarburos (ANH) announced it received five expressions of interest from two companies to incorporate areas to the 2020 bidding round referred as the 3rd cycle of the Proceso Permanente de Asignacion de Areas or PPAA. The ANH also indicated that the 4th cycle of the PPAA to be held in 2021 is being revised.  On 12 June 2020, the ANH published a modified schedule for the 2020 PPAA:    The      deadline to present the expression of interest was extended to 30 June.  The Land      Map with the areas offered in the 3rd cycle of the PPAA will be      published on 18 August.   The rest of the dates continues as previously published:    The list      of qualified investors will be published on 25 September.  The offer      hearing will be on 30 October.     The areas      will be awarded on 27 November 2020, unless there is a counteroffer, in      which case they will be awarded on 14 December 2020.  Contracts      will be signed from 30 November 2020. For areas with counteroffers, they      will be signed from 15 December 2020.   Despite the difficult circumstances this year with the pandemic and the low oil prices, it is good that the ANH continues with the process to assign areas in Colombia as the country needs to increase reserves and there are still good opportunities in the country.  Background Information  On 20 May 2020, the ANH published several modifications to the 3rd cycle of the PPAA:  It introduced the expression of interest, which is a communication where companies indicate their interest in an area. The ANH will study those areas and will determine if they became areas to be offered in the bid round. Companies must present a proposal or be fined by the ANH USD 100,000.  The ANH indicated that this year during the 3rd cycle, the agency will not offer areas determined and delimited by the ANH.  It will not be mandatory to buy data packages to participate in the PPAA.  Areas classified as frontier or immature will only be assigned as Technical Evaluation Agreements (TEA).  The schedule was modified as followed:    Companies      have until 31 August to update their qualification documents.  The ANH will      publish the preliminary list of qualified companies on 21 September and      the final list on 25 September.  The      expression of interest deadline was set as 17 June.   On 28 April 2020, the ANH published a modified schedule for the 3rd cycle of the PPAA.     The due      date to request areas to be incorporated into the process was set to 4 May      2020.  On 3      August 2020 the agency was going to publish the areas for the 3rd      cycle.  The areas      will be awarded on 27 November 2020, unless there is a counteroffer, in      which case they will be awarded on 14 December 2020.  Contracts      will be signed from 30 November 2020. For areas with counteroffers, they      will be signed from 15 December 2020.   On 17 April 2020, the ANH published a list of companies qualified to participate in the 2020 PPAA. The list included 29 companies and only one company, Emerald Energy PLC, did not qualify. From the pre-qualified companies, most (17) were eligible to do exploration or exploitation of offshore areas, and 12 were not.           Pre-qualified   companies PPAA Colombia 2020         Â              Company         Qualified offshore             CNE Oil and Gas S.A.S.         No             Frontera Energy   Colombia Corp.         Yes             Ecopetrol S.A.         Yes             Parex Resources   (Colombia) Ltd.         Yes             Geoproduction Oil and   Gas GMBH         No             Occidental Andina LLC         Yes             Occidental de Colombia   LLC         No             Gran Tierra Energy   Colombia LLC         Yes             Cepsa Colombia S.A.         No             Geopark Colombia   S.A.S.         Yes             Occidental Condor LLC         Yes             Aspect Holdings LLC         No             Hunt Overseas Oil   Company         Yes             Ecopetrol Costa Afuera   S.A.S.         Yes             Hocol S.A.         Yes             Amerisur Exploracion   Colombia Limited         No             Mansarovar Energy   Colombia Ltd.         Yes             Union Temporal La Lula   Captiva         No             Noble Energy Limited         Yes             Hupecol Oriente   Colombian Holdings LLC         No             ONGC Videsh Limited         Yes             Colombia Energy   Development Co.         No             Interoil Colombia   Exploration and Production INC         No             Vetra Exploracion y   Produccion Colombia S.A.S.         Yes             Petroleos Sud   Americanos SA         No             CNOOC Petroleum   Colombia Limited         Yes             Lewis Colombia INC         Yes             Ismocol S.A.         No             Pluspetrol Colombia   Corporation         Yes             Source: IHS Markit         Â©   2020 IHS Markit
Colombia, On 1 July 2020, the Agencia Nacional de Hidrocarburos (ANH) announced it received five expressions of interest from two companies to incorporate areas to the 2020 bidding round referred as the 3rd cycle of the Proceso Permanente de Asignacion de Areas or PPAA.