CALGARY, Oct. 20 /CNW/ - Solana is pleased to announce that its application for the Catguas Block in eastern Colombia was approved by the Board of Directors of the Colombian National Hydrocarbon Agency (ANH) on Oct. 14th 2005. The Catguas Block was awarded under the highly attractive terms of the ANH Contract implemented at the beginning of 2004. The Catguas Block is a large block located in the Catatumbo Basin, and covers 159,000 Hectares. (393,000 Acres.). The Catatumbo basin is a western extension, into Colombia, of the prolific Maracaibo basin of Venezuela. In Venezuela this basin has already produced several billions of barrels of oil and individual producing fields there range in size up to more than 800 million barrels of oil recovered to date. In Colombia, immediately adjacent to the Catguas Block, lie fields such as Tibu; found in 1940 and with 260 million barrels produced to date, Petrolea; discovered in 1934 with 38 million barrels produced to date and Rio Zulia; dating from 1962 and with 137 million barrels recovered to date. Although little exploration has taken place in the basin within the past 25 years the Catguas Block contains two wells, drilled in the late 1950's, which produced oil at rates which were then deemed sub commercial due to low oil prices, poor fiscal terms and lack of infrastructure existing at the time of drilling. A number of exploration leads of significant size are believed to exist on the block based on studies by previous operators. Two existing oil pipelines cross the Catguas Block and as these are now underutilized, they provide important infrastructure for access to markets. Solana has already completed site visits to the block area and acquired all of the available geological and geophysical data. Consequently exploration studies are well advanced. The Company proposes to acquire at least 200 km. of new seismic and drill at least two wells on the Catguas Block, within the next 18 months. Stephen Newton, Solana's President and CEO, commented: "We are delighted to be awarded a contract with such tremendous potential. On the basis of the history of the area and the studies performed to date by Solana, we believe that this large block of acreage holds the potential for large oil and gas discoveries. Solana is already one of the most active exploration companies in Colombia, and this asset adds at least another 2 wells over the next 18 months to our existing drilling program." The TSX Venture Exchange has neither approved nor disapproved of the information contained herein.