Gulfsands Petroleum in Latin American deal

• Tweet

LONDON, March 1 (UPI) -- London-listed Gulfsands Petroleum announced that it landed a deal to start working in new license areas alongside the Colombian government.

Gulfsands said it reached a deal with the National Hydrocarbons Agency in Colombia to work in the Llanos and Putamayo areas in Colombia.

"While both of these license areas are considered to be highly prospective for oil, the successful applications involved attractive financial terms and modest minimum exploration work obligations over the initial four-year exploration terms," the company said

Canadian oil company Canacol and ConocoPhillips announced plans for exploration and production in shale oil plays in Colombia earlier this week.

Exploration and production in Colombia since 2011 has led to a revision of reserve estimates from 1.9 billion barrels in 2011 to 2 billion barrels last year, the U.S. Energy Department's Energy Information Administration reports.

Gulfsands' conventional operations were curtailed by war in Syria. The company announced a similar acquisition last year in Tunisia and moved recently into Morocco.