Despite being headquartered in Toronto, Canada, Pacific Rubiales Energy’s operations concentrate mainly in Colombia, and to a lesser extent, in Peru and Guatemala.

In Colombia, the largest field is Rubiales, in the Llanos Orientales region, in partnership with the state company Ecopetrol. In addition, Pacific was the first international private company to be listed on the Bolsa de Valores de Colombia – the official Colombian Stock Market – and at the end of last year its production grew by 250,000 barrels per day. To understand how the achievements of this company have been made possible we need look no further than the strong ethical policies it enforces.

Sustainability: Synonymous with competitiveness
The company’s policies  are aligned around sustainability as a competitive strategy, acknowledging the significant challenges faced by the global order and the strong conviction needed to conduct all operations in a responsible, transparent and inclusive manner.

For this reason, since 2009, the company has implemented a strategic business policy of sustainability, which is based on a legitimate commitment to achieving its economic goals through the adoption of practices that support a social and environmental balance; thereby contributing to sustainable development and allowing it to generate long term relationships with its stakeholders, which also reflects the company’s growth, strengthening and development of the regions in which it operates.

Socially sustainable; environmentally responsible
In accordance with global standards the company has brought its investment strategy in line with the Global Compact Social United Nations, the indicators of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals. Moreover, the company is a founding member of the Consejo Regional del pacto Mundial para América Latina y el Caribe (Global Compact Regional Council for Latin America and the Caribbean). This is to guarantee the strategy around sustainability reflects legislation on human rights and is consistent throughout the whole value chain.

Pacific Rubiales Energy is developing a solid operation on the river basin of Llanos Orientales in Colombia, in areas known  as the Rubiales and Quifa fields, located at the south-east of the Departamento de Meta region. This area is characterised by having a large and diverse set of actors – projects tailored to meet local needs, identified by the community, company and local governments.

Thus, the “Rubiales Model of Sustainability” was created as a response to the diverse portfolio of stakeholders, such as: (i) civil society, with a poor knowledge of their legal rights, (ii) students with low performances in aptitude tests at secondary school, (iii) indigenous groups, (iv) farmers occupying barren areas and (v) local governments with few resources to implement its regional development plans.

Therefore, the model is based on institutional strengthening and projects tailored to have a positive impact on all local stakeholders. Pacific Rubiales Energy has exported the model to other fields of production, achieving a positive response, making it both a reference point and an example of a fruitful policy of corporative social responsibility.

Leading on technology
In addition, Pacific Rubiales Energy is an innovative company who, through new technologies, is trying to increase the productive life and the economic value of applying the technology fields STAR (Synchronised Thermal Additional Recovery).

The main challenges of the STAR project are breaking the paradigms regarding the operation of in situ combustion processes, and, implementing the STAR technology in a short time frame, while performing all the studies and laboratory tests that this kind of process requires to guarantee its success.

To carry out this work an experienced team was made up of people in both Calgary and in Bogotá, agreements were also made with leading universities and academic institutions throughout the world, accomplished in these types of processes, such as the Calgary University, Alberta Research Council and Techsera Solutions.

STAR is a technology that has been developed and improved by Pacific Rubiales Energy to increase the recovery factor in heavy oil reservoirs and is currently in the process of being patented. Its application for Rubiales was proposed after completing an extensive technological assessment investigating the experiences and lessons learned both internally and externally; discussion and agreement regarding a plan of research to characterise Rubiales’ crude oil with the purpose of, among others, evaluating its improvement potential.

Although it is true that is not possible to guarantee the success of a pilot test, it should be noted that all of the trials and studies performed up to now predict the technical and economical feasibility of the project.

The growth of the country’s oil production and the increase of its reserves will depend upon this technology. By using STAR, the volume of recovered resources from the reservoir will increase greatly, making Colombia one of the world’s biggest oil producers.

Adding its corporative social responsibility strategies with constant innovation in new technologies for exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbons and its analysis and vision for opportunity, Pacific Rubiales Energy has become one of the most striking independent companies in Latin America with a clear and ambitious plan to continue with its strong growth and increase economic value and development within Colombia.