The rig was originally supposed to arrive in the Chicuaco Block to start drilling the well around Christmas time.

But delays at its current project caused the joint venture to re-schedule the spud date until the first week of January.

Then yesterday, Baraka reported that the rig was taking longer than expected at the other Llanos Basin project and was not expected to arrive at the Monza-1 site until the last week of January.

“As soon as operations on this well are completed, the rig will be mobilised and re-located to the Monza-1 well location,” the company said.

If successful, Monza-1, which is targeting 2.5 million barrels of recoverable oil resource, will be immediately production tested and produce into temporary facilities until permanent facilities are installed.

Several other prospects and leads have been identified in the block for possible future exploration drilling.

The Chicuaco block is about 70km from the La Punta oil field, which Baraka farmed-into in October, as well as several other producing oil fields including the prolific Rubiales project.