Oxy restarts production in Colombia

Occidental Petroleum’s Colombian unit has resumed production at the Caño-Limón oilfield, the company announced late on Monday.

Occidental de Colombia was forced progressively halt well production at the beginning December due to a prolonged shut-in of the Caño Limón-Coveñas pipeline. The conduit was taken offline on November 17 after a series of attacks. When Oxy had reached the limits of its storage capacity at the field, output had to be scaled back.

“At this moment, production activities at the field are normal after being restarted and the pipeline to move the crude is working without problems,” Alvaro Vicente Perez, the general in charge of the Colombian army’s regional security task force, said in a statement.

The Caño-Limón oilfield has produced more than 1.3 billion barrels of oil since its discovery by Oxy in 1983. Ecopetrol and Oxy have jointly operated the field since 2005. Oxy also has a working interest in the La Cira-Infantas oilfield in the Middle Magdalena Valley Basin.