NG Energy optimizing gas processing at Colombian fields

NG Energy International Corp. (NGE) is progressing with works to improve natural gas processing activities at its Sinu-9 and Maria Conchita gas licenses respectively located in northwestern and northeastern Colombia.

At Sinu-9—which covers 311,353 acres in Sinú-San Jacinto (SSJ) basin in the Lower Magdalena Valley, 75 km from Colombia’s Caribbean coast—NGE completed installation and began commissioning of a mobile gas plant with processing and dewpoint-handling capacity of 12 MMcfd, with room for expansion, the company said on Mar. 27.

At NGE’s existing Central Processing Facility 1 (CPF-1) in Sinu-9, the operator also confirmed mobilization and construction works remain ongoing for installation of additional dewpoint-handling equipment.

While capacity of dewpoint-handling equipment at CPF-1 will total 50 MMcfd upon the buildout’s targeted commissioning in second-quarter 2025, CPF-1’s overall capacity will remain limited to 30 MMcfd in the near term due to compression and transportation restraints, the operator said.

Upon completing installation of both the mobile plant and CPF-1’s additional dewpoint-handling equipment, NGE said it expects Sinu-9 total processing and compression capacity to reach 42 MMcfd, with room for further expansion.

NGE has been permitted to drill 22 wells from 11 locations at Sinu-9. Covering 311,353 acres in Sinú-San Jacinto (SSJ) basin in the Lower Magdalena Valley, 75 km from Colombia’s Caribbean coast, the overall block contains 158.8 bcf gross proven plus probable (2P) reserves and 340.8 bcf proven plus probable plus possible (3P) reserves (OGJ Online, Feb. 12, 2025).

At its Maria Conchita onshore block in Guajira basin, NGE said it continues to transition the compression system and has started civil works to expand processing and compression equipment as part of a project to increase total production capacity of operations to 28 MMcfd.

Production at Maria Conchita has been reduced in recent months amid compressor challenges and downhole obstruction issues from a well-servicing tool lodged and blocking the lower zone (H1) in Aruchara-3, resulting in lower average gross natural gas sales of 10.4 MMcfd for the first 2 months of 2025, NGE said.

In response to these challenges, the operator confirmed it is currently undertaking a series of remedial measures, including:

• Transitioning the operating and maintenance contract on the compressor system from a third-party vendor back to the owner, the latter of which has acquired a 10-MMcfd compressor model equipped with a strong operating history in Maria Conchita.
• Transferring, installing, and commissioning two new compressors with respective cacpacites of 10 MMcfd and 6 MMcfd.
• Executing other expansion works such as procuring an additional 10-MMcfd compression, as well as adding triethylene glycol (TEG) electrical pumps with variable frequencies and control valves for higher production rates.
• Executing a workover campaign of the Aruchara-1 and Aruchara-3 wells to enhance flow of natural gas from the H1 and H2 zones.

Future production

Alongside processing improvements at Sinu-9 and Maria Conchita, NGE said it has also acquired the necessary land for the flow-line right-of-way and new platform at Maria Conchita, which will enable to operator to drill its next target, the Aruchara-4 well.

Currently in the process of completing environmental and civil works on the development, NGE said it expects to spud the new well in late second-quarter 2025.

Upon completing tie-in of the Aruchara-4 well, its workover campaign on producing wells, and expansion of processing works, gas production at Maria Conchita in third-quarter 2025 is anticipated to exceed 25 MMcfd, the operator said.

As of early March 2025, NGE was producing 15 MMcfd of gas from Maria Conchita, according to the company’s latest corporate presentation.