With infrastructure more secure and oil production on the rise, Colombia is becoming an increasingly attractive onshore energy region that boasts such upstream sector initiatives as allowing foreign oil companies to own 100% stakes in oil ventures. Situated in the central hub of South American exploration and production, near major exporters Venezuela and Brazil, Colombia contains proven crude oil reserves of 1.36 billion barrels and proven natural gas reserves of 3.7 Tcf (as of 2009). State-controlled oil company Ecopetrol operates five major refineries in Colombia.