A promising area off Colombia’s coast where Brazil state-run Petrobras is drilling this year could justify a large project to supply natural gas to the Andean country and for exports, stated Joelson Mendes, Petrobras’ head of exploration and production.

Petrobras and Ecopetrol plan to drill two wells in the Tayrona block this year, following a gas discovery at the Uchuva-1 well in 2022. Mendes stated that there may be more gas than Colombia needs, and the government has already requested that Petrobras expedite the project.

The evaluation of the wells is expected to be completed by early 2025, after which the project will be presented to Petrobras’ board for consideration. If approved, first gas could be produced earlier than the initial goal of 2029, Mendes said.

Petrobras will wait for the well appraisal results to plan the project’s size and gas commercialization, including the possibility of setting up liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities, the executive said.

A gas deficit in the Andean country is growing, leading to more purchases of LNG and possibly imports from Venezuela if an idled gas line is repaired. That $40 million project will need authorization from the US Treasury Department, Ecopetrol CEO Ricardo Roa said this week.

While Petrobras is expanding its operations to new frontiers such as, Mendes emphasized that the company will continue to focus on finding new oil and gas reserves in its own basin, , including the environmentally sensitive Equatorial Margin.

“According to some scenarios, our production will peak in the next 10 years. We need new discoveries,” he said. “Some people think presalt will last forever. It won’t.”

Petrobras also continues looking at opportunities for exploring in Guyana and Suriname, Mendes said.