The proposed Bicentennial Pipeline will be owned and operated by newly-formed company, Oleoducto Bicentenario de Colombia.

The shareholders of the company are Ecopetrol (55 per cent), Pacific Rubiales (32.88 per cent), Petrominerales (9.65 per cent), Hocol (0.96 per cent), C&C Energía, Rancho Hermoso – Canacol Energy Ltd and Vetra Exploracion & Produccion Colombia SAS (0.5 per cent each).

The pipeline will consist of 42 inch and 36 inch diameter pipe, and have a capacity of 450,000 bbl/d of crude oil.

The project will be constructed in three stages. The first stage includes the laying of 226 km of pipe from Araguaney to Banadia as well as infrastructure upgrades at the port of Coveñas.

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Stage two of the project will see 387 km of pipe laid from Banadía to Ayacuch, while the final stage will see construction of the 310 km section from Ayacucho to Coveñas. The entire project is estimated to cost $US4.2 billion.

An Ecopetrol spokesperson said that the bidding for the engineering, procurement and construction contact has closed and that the contract will be awarded soon.

The pipeline is expected to be operational by 2012.

Building an export industry

Colombia’s crude oil production forecast for 2010–15 shows that the country’s total production will continue to increase rapidly to figures of nearly 1.3 MMbbl/d in 2013.

Ecopetrol’s Executive Downstream Vice President Pedro Rosales said “The production forecasts of recent years have been far exceeded by reality due to the increase in investments in exploration and production in Colombia and a success rate higher than expected.”

This increase has necessitated the upgrade of existing pipeline infrastructure as well as the construction of new export pipelines to export the oil.