200 MLN BBLS OIL RESERVES FOUND IN COLOMBIA

BOGOTA, June 19 (Reuters) - Brazil's Braspetro and Canadian Occidental
Petroleum (Toronto:CXY.TO - news) have found a new oil field some 55 miles
(90 km) southwest of Bogota that holds a ``minimum'' 200 million barrels
reserves, state-run oil company Ecopetrol said Monday.

Ecopetrol chief Alberto Calderon said the find in the exploration
block known as Boqueron was the country's most important oil discovery
in the last 10 years.

Speaking on local radio, he said two test wells had already been sunk
and that a further eight were planned over the next few months, adding
that the field could contain up to 300 million barrels reserves.

The find comes at a critical time for Colombia's oil industry. The
country produced an average 805,000 barrels per day last year and that
figure is due to slump below 800,000 bpd this year.

Experts have said Colombia will become a net importer again by 2004 if
no major new finds are made.

At 300 million barrels reserves, Boqueron would be Colombia's third
largest field after Cusiana-Cupiagua, with some 1.5 billion barrels
recoverable reserves and Cano Limon, with around 1 billion barrels
recoverable reserves.

It is thought to be the first major oil find in central Cundinamarca
province. Both Cusiana-Cupiagua, operated by BP Amoco (quote from Yahoo! UK
& Ireland: BPA.L) and Cano Limon, operated by Occidental Petroleum Corp
(NYSE:OXY - news) are in the eastern plains region, Colombia's most
prolific oil bearing region.

A third area, the Samore block tipped to harbour some 2.5 barrels of
crude, is also located in the eastern plains. But Occidental, which
holds the exploration contract, has not even sunk the first test well
following an eight year dispute with the U'wa Indian tribe which
claims the land as ancestral territories.

Colombia has at present some 2.3 billion barrels of proven reserves
but estimated potential reserves of some 36 billion.

However, only about 20 percent of the country's potential oil-bearing
regions have been explored as a result of poor security due to a
long-running guerrilla war and what multinationals perceive as poor
contract terms for exploration and production.

It was not immediately clear how long Braspetro, a unit of Brazil's
state-run Petrobras , and Canadian had been exploring the Boqueron
prospect nor how much field development would cost.

Typically a well can cost some $40 million to sink in the eastern
plains region where drilling conditions are notoriously difficult but
are generally lower elsewhere in the country.

Calderon did not spell out exactly when the remaining eight test wells
would be completed.