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oilfield service provider Topen Group. He cites his industry experience as key to the way that he designed the service offering of his company: “I discovered that services companies had some failures related to the offer of integral services; because, for example, with constructors, you could never find a firm that provided all the services you needed.” With Topen, Polanco decided to create the first company with integral solutions in the construction industry. He also decided to focus on innovation, since he saw that new techniques for efficiency are the key to growing Colombia’s production. For the past two years, Topen has been partnered with Zap-Lok pipeline systems, an American producer of non-welding pipelines. Topen is the only company that offers this kind of pipeline, which significantly reduces the time and costs required for construction of pipeline infrastructure. Topen is now looking to grow the scope of its business in order to fill other niches that it sees in the Colombian market. “We are looking for partners with the sufficient financial strength that can help us develop bigger projects,” says Polanco. Colombians going overseas One indicator of the growing standard and confidence of Colombian oil and gas services is the international ambitions of many of its key players. Indequipos is a Colombian company based mainly in the country, but is now planning to move into the U.S. market. “Indequipos is a pioneer Colombian service company; we are a local company going global,” says Luis Germán Bustamante, the company president. “We plan to set up our U.S. operations from scratch and grow organically. However, it is difficult to break into the market in the U.S., not only because of cultural differences stemming from the fact that Inde- “We believe that international work will be an ever-increasing part of our business.” —Camilo Ángel, sales director, Falco quipos is a Latin American company; the market is really saturated, with plenty of players of all sizes.” Bustamante notes that Colombia is becoming known for talented engineers that are highly motivated and well prepared: “Many major companies choose Colombia as their main engineering base, even for operations carried on elsewhere. This means that companies and investors know the benefits of working in Colombia and with Colombians.” Falco Campamentos is a Colombian family business that has over 30 years of experience at building modular camps for the oil and gas industry. Due to the high competitive environment in this field and the logistical considerations that the company has evolved though its work in Colombia, it is now able to offer a world-class service to other oil and gas markets. The company recently won a contract to supply modular camps to a project in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where logistics and climate conditions match parts of Colombia. “The quality, strength and mobility of our products have been well received. We believe that this international work will be an ever-increasing part of our business,” says Camilo Ángel, sales director at Falco. Colombian services are also emerging as a target for acquisition from international giants. Masa Team has established a 20-year reputation for the high quality of its oil and gas services in the Colombian market. In 2007, the company was acquired by the Dutch multinational Stork Group. Through its years of operation, Masa developed five business branches to provide its clients solutions throughout the entire value chain: maintenance, projects and construction, early tests of wells temporary facilities maintenance consulting and industrial services. “With all the services we offer, and with the business strategy we have, we are heading our way to become a worldwide competitor and be the partner of choice of most companies in the market,” says company present Antonio Villegas. Becoming part of Stork, and gaining a multinational company’s financial and operational support, has allowed the company to significantly broaden its horizons. “Before the acquisition, we had no more than 2,000 employees and now we have more than 4,000. We are also going to represent Stork in Latin America and also we are going to lead the expansion of the company in the region,” says Villegas. Regional input As the cycle of investment has shifted to make Colombia the hottest market in Latin America, companies that have developed expertise in more established market are bringing that influence to Colombia. Given the number of highly placed Venezuelan executives in companies exploring and producing in Colombia, it is inevitable that Venezuelan services also play a major role. ConFurca is a Venezuelan based construction firm that was founded in 1976, offering oil field services such as gas compression stations and pipelines. Since C-24 OilandGasInvestor.com ▪ June 2012
developing a reputation in Venezuela, in 2006, ConFurca established operations in Colombia. Although Venezuela remains the company’s core focus, Colombia is now a significant market for the company in which it sees great growth potential. “Venezuela is already a petroleum country, with a rich history in exploration and production. Colombia has had a serious oil industry for no more than 15 years, but it will become an increasingly important market with a lot of opportunities for all oil and gas services,” says Furlaneto. Another neighbour to Colombia, with a longer history in oil and gas exploitation, is Ecuador. Adrialpetrol was founded in 1995 in Ecuador as a consultancy. It has developed enormous expertise within the Colombian oil and gas sector and collaborated in many major projects. “It is hard to say if Ecuadorian influence might be as important as Venezuelan, but it is true that most professionals have had some experience in the Ecuadorian market that gave them a vision of how is to work in this country and the possibilities that are in the market,” says Adrialpetrol’s general manager, Jaime Durán. The company now acts as representative for international product manufacturers that cover the entire chain for drilling and production operations. Although competition is becoming strong, Durán feels that it has an advantage because the company represents world leaders in this market and possess over three engineering research lines to support their clients. “We hope in five years we can be as big as any of the other major competitors in the region. In Colombia we would like to be the biggest services company in the support and innovational technologies for the artificial lift market. We think our technology advances and investment are going to lead us to the goals we have,” says Durán. ▪ June 2012 ▪ OilandGasInvestor.com C-25
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Page 3 and 4: economic policies that hope to insu
Page 5 and 6: “Our interest is to support the g
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Page 10 and 11: pertise with theirs, that is about
Page 12 and 13: Richard Walls, president, C&C Energ
Page 14 and 15: Alastair Hill, president and CEO, S
Page 16 and 17: Colombia is keen to protect its dra
Page 18 and 19: cated in environmentally sensitive
Page 20 and 21: Arturo Mendez, vice president, mark
Page 22 and 23: Colombia's seismic surveying has re

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