A Special Report From Oil and Gas Investor and Global ... - Equión

products to be known for being both environmentally
friendly and highly efficient,”
says José Enrique Garzón, manager at Power
Group.
Now that Power Group has established
itself in Colombia and developed its products
and services to a high standard, it
wants to expand operations across the region.
It hopes that in four years it will have
operations in Ecuador, Brazil and Argentina.
Oilfield management is another field
that was originally dominated by the large
international service providers. However,
local companies can often offer a better understanding
of the Colombian labour dynamics
and the security or logistical
considerations than those that are less familiar
with the country.
One example is Empressa Colombiana
de Operaciones Petroleras (Ecop SA), a
company that started operations in 2001,
and offers engineering services for explorations
projects and specialized supervision
in the field once projects go into operation.
“Our experience and knowledge in the
sector is our strength, because we see that
consulting services are a priority in this
market. However, sometimes it is a challenge
that companies do not understand the
impact that having an experienced, local
consultant can have on the success of a project,”
explains Omar Cortés, general manager
of Ecop.
It has taken time for Colombian operational
consultants to build a brand or reputation,
but now Ecop has demonstrated its
capabilities and had the chance to work
with companies such as Petrobras, Ecopetrol
and Pacific Rubiales. Cortés believes that
this perception is changing.
“International companies have an ad-
Jaime Durán (right), general manager, Adrialpetro
vantage over local consultants because their
brand is more recognized and because the
Colombian service sector is not yet internationally
known,” he says. “However, local
companies also have a big advantage over
internationals because Colombia is a unique
place to operate in. The security and infrastructure
considerations that need to be
made here are very different from other
markets.”
This view is shared by William Santos,
general manager of William Santos Ingeniería
y Construcción. The company designs
and constructs production facilities
and has built a close relationship with a
number of the main E&P companies operating
in Colombia, particularly Pacific Rubiales.
Santos feels that local service companies
are constrained by a lack of appetite from
local lenders: “There is no doubt finance
has been an obstacle for us because companies
in Colombia don’t have the proper support
from financial institutions in terms of
access to credit. We also have seen that
gain the confidence of the major operators
has been hard, since we are a small company
competing with firms with years of experience.”
Despite these challenges Santos’ firm
has been able to grow to 120 employees and
enjoyed an 80% increase in business in
2011. His aim is to continue that growth at
a sustainable rate: “The prospective for the
near future is really good but the real aim is
to build a foundation so that the company
will stable and well established once the
boom in investment starts to find equilibrium.”
As Colombia’s oil and gas sector expands
and evolves, the services that are required
also shift. Luis Polanco is CEO of Colombian
June 2012 ▪ OilandGasInvestor.com C-23