Colombian state oil firm Ecopetrol is extending a joint venture with Occidental Petroleum in the Permian’s Midland Basin. (Source: Shutterstock.com, Occidental Petroleum, Ecopetrol)
Occidental Petroleum and Colombian state oil company Ecopetrol are furthering a drilling joint venture (JV) in the Permian’s Midland Basin.
The two companies reached an agreement to extend the development plan of Rodeo Midland Basin LLC, the JV entity originally established between Oxy and Ecopetrol in July 2019.
The updated plans call for drilling 34 Midland Basin wells between April 2025 and June 2026, in addition to the wells being completed in the first quarter of 2025, Ecopetrol told investors on Feb. 3.
Ecopetrol and Oxy will maintain a separate independent contract for joint development in the Permian’s more western Delaware Basin. The companies expanded their partnership to cover Delaware Basin acreage in 2022, according to Ecopetrol regulatory filings.
The Delaware Basin contract will remain in force until 2027.
Ecopetrol plans to drill around 91 wells and spend US$885 million across the Midland and Delaware basins this year. Annual net production to Ecopetrol is estimated to come in around 90,000 boe/d.
After Oxy closed a $12 billion acquisition of private Midland E&P CrownRock last year, Oxy had been in talks to potentially sell a 30% stake in CrownRock’s assets to Ecopetrol—a right granted to Ecopetrol through the Midland JV’s structure.
But Ecopetrol ultimately declined to acquire the 30% interest in CrownRock. Ecopetrol executives cited several reasons for not acquiring the stake, including the lack of government sign-off for the deal, emerging domestic gas resources onshore and offshore Colombia and the nation’s objectives in building new wind and solar power generation.
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