Andrew Wright, CEO of UK Colombia Trade, will visit the United Kingdom along with the President of Colombia’s National Hydrocarbons Agency and the President of the Colombian Oil Association the week of 7-11th September 2015 to build bilateral ties and strengthen the supply chain relationship with Colombian companies to develop the budding offshore industry.
British companies have historically played a significant role in the development of Colombia’s oil and gas industry and in the light of recent offshore finds, there exists another opportunity for the UK to support Colombia in the development of a new, dynamic offshore market to complement falling onshore reserves. In the 1980s, BP developed the prolific Coveñas field and today Shell holds a large acreage of offshore blocks. UK Colombia Trade aims to promote and assist not only Operators, but also the entrance of British service and supply chain firms into the Colombian hydrocarbons market, particularly in the area of offshore and subsea services including seismic, environmental studies, HSEQ, subsea, FEED and workover.
Looking towards the future, the Colombian Caribbean represents an opportunity to create new jobs, technical training and to establish a hub for oil & gas services providing knowledge and expertise to other emerging countries in the region.
Andrew Wright, CEO of UK Colombia Trade comments: “The Orca-1 discovery opened our minds about the realistic size of opportunity for specialist UK firms in Offshore exploration and services, but with the latest Kronos find it is now clear that Colombia could host the next Latin America Offshore boom and should be on the radar of British companies already looking at Brazil and Mexico. Colombia is currently ranked by the World Bank as Number 1 in terms of Ease of Doing Business in Latin America, so we encourage British companies to take advantage of this exciting development.”
The Colombian delegation will attend a Colombia Export Showcase event at the Energy Industry Council premises on Monday 7th, followed by an active commercial and technical agenda at Offshore Europe 2015 in Aberdeen from 8th-11th September. This visit follows a delegation of British companies that already visited Colombia as part of an Energy Industry Council trade delegation to build commercial ties with Colombia and UK Colombia Trade will be hosting a further visit of UK firms to Colombia in October 2015, led by the trade body NOF Energy.
Caroline Williams CEO Norfolk Chamber said: “Our links with the Chamber Global Network gives real competitive advantage to business who want to start or increase their businesses overseas. If Columbia is of interest to you please do contact Julie Austin [email protected] our Norfolk Chamber International Trade Manager”
