Colombia

By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, June 28 – Colombia’s National Hydrocarbon Agency awarded Gran Tierra Energy Inc., Calgary, the Putumayo 10 block in the Putumayo basin and the Cauca 6 and 10 blocks in the southern Cauca basin in Colombia.

Contracts are expected to be finalized by October 2010.

Putumayo 10 is near Gran Tierra’s core existing areas in the basin and offers exploration opportunities expected to be similar to the company’s Piedemonte Norte and Piedemonte Sur exploration blocks. The block is on a structural trend that will enable Gran Tierra to leverage existing knowledge from the Chaza block.

Putumayo 10 covers 114,097 net acres, and multiple leads have been identified. Seismic surveys are planned for 2011 and drilling in 2012.

Cauca 6 and 7, on 571,197 net acres and 785,450 net acres, respectively, lie 100 km north of the Putumayo basin. The contracts require 200 and 250 line-km of 2D seismic, respectively, and one exploratory well each.

The Cauca blocks are on a fold and thrust belt similar to that found in Putumayo with Cretaceous and Tertiary reservoir objectives and oil and gas seeps. The blocks contain a loose grid of old 2D seismic data but are undrilled. New 2D seismic data may be acquired in 2011, with drilling expected to follow in 2012 or 2013.