Canacol to Expand Drilling on Colombian Plains

Canada-listed Canacol will expand its drilling in Colombia's eastern Llanos plains, the company said on Friday, after discovering light crude in one of the Andean nation's most promising onshore oil areas.

Canacol said it had achieved production of 2,930 barrels per day from the exploration well Pantro 1 in the Llanos basin concession LLA23, in which it has an 80 percent stake. The rest is owned by Petromont Colombia S.A.

Canacol cautioned that the results were preliminary and would be followed up with a more detailed analysis, but given other discoveries it had made within the same concession, it would expand exploration drilling with two additional test wells.

"Pantro is the third consecutive discovery of light crude after the Labrador and Leono discoveries, which confirms a very productive trend for light crude in the LLA23 block," Canacol Chief Executive Officer Charle Gamba said in a statement.

Colombia is Latin America's fourth-biggest oil producer with average production of around 1 million bpd. The government is holding a bidding round for new exploration concessions in July to try to reverse a decline in reserves.

Canacol shares traded on Colombia's Bogota stock exchange were trading 0.8 percent lower at 14,400 pesos on Friday while its Toronto traded stock was 0.12 percent lower at C$8.23. The company's operations are all in Colombia and Ecuador.

(Reporting by Nelson Bocanegra; Writing by Peter Murphy; Editing by Marguerita Choy)