OREANDA-NEWS. Colombia is cautiously awaiting natural gas supply from Venezuela through a cross-border pipeline that has been empty since Bogota suspended exports in mid-2015.

Despite a Venezuelan pledge that exports to gas-short Colombia will kick off in January, Colombian industry executives are skeptical that state-owned PdV will be prepared to provide steady supply by next month.

Still, bilateral tensions appear to have dissipated since Caracas abruptly started closing border crossings in August, forcing thousands of Colombians to leave Venezuela. The crossings remain closed, in an official Venezuelan effort to tackle smuggling and drug-trafficking.

PdV is currently conducting maintenance on the 225km (140mi) Antonio-Ricaurte gas pipeline that it owns and operates, several industry sources told Argus.

PdV confirmed it is doing normal programmed maintenance. A July explosion on the Colombia side, deemed an accident, has since been repaired, the company says.

A gas supply contract between PdV and a counterparty on the Colombian side, possibly Chevron, has not been signed. Chevron, which operates the Colombian Guajira gas fields that had been supplying Venezuela, declined to comment.

"I think supply will start up in January with testing, but (firm contract supply) will probably start in the second quarter of next year," a senior gas sector executive in Colombia told Argus.

One executive representing a Colombian thermal generator that has been hard-hit by Colombia?s gas shortage dismissed the chances for short-term supply from Venezuela. Colombia?s main thermal generators are building an LNG terminal near Cartagena for start-up in 2017.

Earlier this year, the Colombian gas association Naturgas, which mainly represents transporters and distributors, said PdV would export around 39mn ft3/d (1.09mn m3/d) to Colombia's Caribbean market starting 1 January 2016, ramping up to 85mn ft3/d by 2017 and to 150mn ft3/d up to three years later.

The gas will come from the 17 trillion ft3 offshore Perla field, which is run by Spain?s Repsol and Italy?s Eni in the Cardon 4 joint venture. PdV is the sole offtaker, and has been using the gas mainly to supply its oil refinery complex on the Paraguana peninsula. The Gulf of Venezuela field started production in July and is currently producing around 14mn m3/d (494mn ft3/d).

At a meeting in Caracas today, Eni chief executive Claudio Delcazi discussed Perla?s progress with Venezuelan energy minister Eulogio del Pino. "Perspectives of a further production growth of Perla (Phase 2 with more then 23mn m3/d) were discussed together with the possibility of using part of the resources of the field shortly for export projects," Eni said.

Colombia had been shipping around 40mn ft3/d of gas from Guajira to Venezuela until mid-2015, when the exports were cut off to ensure domestic supply in anticipation of the drought-causing weather phenomenon El Ni?o.

Most thermal power generators in Colombia are currently using diesel because of the gas shortage, triggering financial problems that in the case of Termocandelaria recently led to a state intervention.

When the pipeline was completed in 2007, Venezuela and Colombia agreed that the flow would be reversed in 2012, a goal that PdV could not meet.

Chevron's gross Guajira output dipped to 374mn ft3/d in August before recuperating to 434mn ft3/d in September, according to the latest recorded output number reported by Colombia's national hydrocarbons agency (ANH). But the overall trend is declining.

Chevron operates the Ballena and Chuchupa fields with state-controlled partner Ecopetrol. Riohacha, the third Guajira license field, stopped production earlier this year.

Colombia produced 1.034bn ft3/d of gas in November, down by 5.3pc from November last year and by 1.5pc from October.

Colombian gas distributor Promigas says imports through its planned 400mn ft3/d regasification terminal will service 100pc of Atlantic coast thermal generators' demand once it comes on line in 2017.