Pacfic Rubiales Tops Production Milestone in Colombia

Pacific Rubiales has reached a production level of 117,784 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) of gross operated production, equivalent to 48,667.7 boepd net after royalties in all its assets in Colombia. This new production level is an increase of over 17,000 boepd from the level announced on October 22, 2009.

Rubiales Field

The company has achieved gross production of 100,319 barrels of oil per day (bopd) at the Rubiales/Piriri field (excluding Quifa), in the Los Llanos Orientales basin. This milestone comes as a result of the following: the ODL pipeline, inaugurated in September, which removed the transportation limitation and secondly the expansion of production and treatment facilities, as well as the drilling plan being executed. This is framed within a business plan that aims to reach a plateau of 170,000 bopd by the end of 2010.

La Creciente

In addition, the company has announced that La Creciente Natural Gas field, in the northern part of Colombia, has reached its current operational gross production goal of 60 mmscfpd, which until now had been curtailed by some scheduled and unscheduled maintenance work. Volumes have been increased at a time when internal market demand has strengthened.

Quifa Block

As part of the appraisal drilling campaign in the block, a second appraisal well was drilled in prospect "H". The Quifa-11 well found the top of the Carbonera basal sands at 2,862 feet measured depth (MD), or 2,207 feet true vertical depth at sub-sea level (TVDSS) and the oil water contact at 2,891 feet MD, or 2,236 feet TVDSS, resulting in an oil column of 29 feet gross at the well. Preliminary petrophysical evaluation of the well indicates a net pay zone of 12 feet with 32% average porosity. The Quifa-11 well was drilled southwest of prospect "H" at a distance of 1.1 km from the Quifa-7 well and 2.2 km from the Quifa-10 well (refer to drill results of the Quifa-7 and Quifa-10, in the company's press release dated September 8 and October 13, 2009, respectively). The company is presently planning to test the well and complete it as a producer. The Quifa-11 well confirms the extension of Prospect "H" to the southwest, resulting in an average net pay of 37 feet for the three wells. The average OWC from Quifa-7, Quifa-10 and Quifa-11 wells is calculated at 2,251 feet TVDSS and the drainage area for prospect "H" is estimated at a minimum of 4,780 acres.

Abanico Field

Abanico 34 was drilled from October 9 to October 26, 2009 in the northeastern part of the Abanico oilfield, about 200 meters northward from the exploratory well Abanico 20, announced in a press release on June 11, 2009. The Abanico 34 well found the Upper Member of Guadalupe Formation at 2735 feet measured depth (MD) or 1660 feet true vertical depth at sub-sea level (TVDSS), and the Lower Guadalupe Member at 2819 feet measured depth (MD), or 1742 feet true vertical depth at sub-sea level (TVDSS), about 70 feet above the top of the Lower Guadalupe Member in the Abanico 20 well, with a gross thickness of 179 vertical feet, 63 feet thicker than the Abanico 20 well.

Two intervals have been determined for a selective test in Lower Guadalupe sandstones. The first interval has tested (between 2926 and 2970 feet MD) 275 bopd and 0.5% BSW. The second interval, between 2820 and 2908 feet MD, has tested 220 bopd and 0.5% BSW. This well extends the accumulation of the field to the northeast beyond the drainage area of the well Abanico 20, which tested an oil production of 901 bopd of 22.5 degrees API oil and 4.7% BSW in natural flow. Pacific Rubiales has a 50% working interest in the non-commercial area of the Abanico Block, where this well is located, and which was acquired by the company in the Kappa Resources acquisition in 2008. The results of the Abanico 20 and Abanico 34 wells will support the possible extension to the north of the commercial area of the Abanico Field.

Mr. Ronald Pantin, Chief Executive Officer, commented, "Reaching these milestones are the result of very hard work all across the company, management and operations team on the field. The results confirm our conviction in the growth strategy which the company has been pursuing since acquiring the Rubiales field in mid 2007 and discovering La Creciente. We were able to achieve this goal by leveraging the strength of our technical knowledge with a focus on low-cost and rapid production growth."
 


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