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Texas based oil operator Anadarko (NYSE:APC) walked away with three of the five offshore blocks assigned in the Colombia Round 2014, and has caught the attention of authorities after offering the largest amount for a single block, at US$123M.

The Colombian government puts high hopes on offshore blocks for the 2014 Round of auctions. But today companies which won offshore blocks in previous round are ‘out-shooting’ those companies with onshore blocks.

There is growing interest in Colombia’s potential for offshore production, and there are four planned offshore exploration wells in Colombia’s Caribbean waters, but greater incentives are needed to boost this incipient industry.

Year-to-date May 2014 results for kilometers of seismic and numbers of exploratory wells show improvement over 2013 but are not on track to meet government objectives.

The Ministry of Mines and Energy (MinMinas) is preparing a Conpes document that would create greater incentives for investment in off-shore exploration, one of its priorities in expanding Colombia’s proven reserves.

We used press reports earlier this week to publish an article on the (supposedly) joint MinMinas / MinAmbiente decree on seismic. Now we have found the original MinAmbiente (only) press release and the draft decree.

MinMinas recently released the country’s reserve estimates for crude oil and natural gas for YE2013. The biggest questions are around sustainability for gas.

The use of oil, gas and minerals finder technology (OFT) which harnesses satellite imagery to identify mineral content has been in Colombia for around three years, but technology suppliers say that it is only recently gaining interest for exploration.

In order for Colombia to achieve self- sufficiency for its own oil supply, an important and dramatic discovery of reserves must happen this decade, otherwise keeping along current trends the reserves logged would not supply the country past 2018, according to a government report.

The Colombian Petroleum Association (ACP) says that it expects 140 exploratory wells to be drilled in 2014, a number which is 20% above its total for last year but well below lofty projections from the National Hydrocarbons Agency, which expects 233.