Could you provide some background about GeoPark?

Absolutely. GeoPark was founded in 2002 by Gerard O’Shaughnessy and James Park, when the company acquired assets in Chile and Argentina. We are a Latin American explorer, operator, and consolidator in Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, and Peru. Over the last nine years, we have grown in all key measurements: production has gone from zero to over 20,000 barrels of oil equivalent (boe) per day, reserves from zero to over 120 million boe, with exploration resource between 500 million to 1 billion boe. As the numbers show, GeoPark has grown rapidly and continuously.

Can you summarize GeoPark’s operations in Argentina?

Sure. In 2002, GeoPark acquired 100% interest in the Del Mosquito block, in the Austral Basin, and Cerro Doña Juana and Loma Cortaderal in the Neuquen Basin in Argentina. In November of that year, we started the operation in Del Mosquito producing the first barrels of oil in the company. Then in 2006, we got the operationship of the Fell block in Chile which was the base for our growth. In recent years, Argentina did not have a large impact on GeoPark’s operations, but the company participated in a bidding round in Mendoza in 2014 and won two blocks, Sierra del Nevado and Puelen where Pluspetrol is the operator. Additionally, in 2015, GeoPark acquired a 50% interest in a high potential low cost Neuquén Basin block (CN-V) in Argentina in partnership with Wintershall, which includes two shallow light oil prospects (GeoPark estimation of 23 to 42 gross million barrels) with additional leads and plays, including upside potential in the Vaca Muerta shale play.

Did YPF’s re-nationalization change GeoPark’s strategy in Argentina?

No, events like YPF’s re-nationalization have not changed GeoPark’s goal to leverage the company’s technical, operating, and financial expertise to become the leading independent oil and gas company in Latin America. GeoPark’s technical team surveys all the basins of Latin America to target those in which the company has advantages and sees high potential. The company has already presence in the following basins: Magallanes in Chile; Neuquén and Austral in Argentina; Marañon in Peru, Llanos, Medium and upper Magdalena and Putumayo in Colombia; Potiguar, Reconcavo, Sergipe Alagoas and Parnaiba in Brazil; among others. Though oil and gas production have declined in Argentina over the last ten years, the country needs energy. GeoPark has partnered with national oil companies (NOCs) throughout Latin America, and YPF is another NOC with which we would like to partner.

What explains GeoPark’s rapid and continuous growth, especially in 2013 and 2014?

GeoPark’s people have been key to the company’s success. In Argentina, we have a technical team comprised of professionals with more than 25 years of expertise in companies such as Chevron San Jorge, Pluspetrol, YPF, among others, and who has discovered more than 700 million barrels in the region. This Buenos Aires-based technical team plus the very experienced local team in each business unit has given invaluable tool of growth to GeoPark in Latin America.