Who we are

Miguel Saab, a man dedicated to the soil movement and infrastructure construction business, decided to purchase a Garden Denver 500 drill rig to be used in water well intervention for the next 10 years. During this time, Saab combined these two activities, and devoted himself to drilling wells in the department of Huila, wells which are still in operation today.

With the increase of needs for water supply for the agricultural sector and, at the same time, opening a market in the Colombian Caribbean coast, Miguel Saab bought a new Drilltech equipment, model D40K. This equipment was innovative, advanced and had the highest technology in well drilling at the time.

Since then, Independence has been a pioneer in technology and innovation; with this equipment it contributed to the discovery and development of Occidental de Colombia Caño Limón field, one of the most important in the country.

On July 15, 1980, Miguel Saab, in partnership with his wife, established Industria de Exploración Minera y Petrolera Independence Ltda, headquartered in Barranquilla, Colombia.

The company moved to Bogota in search of expanding its offer into the oil and water well market.

A third piece of equipment with a greater focus on oil was acquired, but it also supplied the wells market for extracting deeper subterranean water. Successful campaigns were achieved in the maintenance of oil wells in the municipalities of Sabana de Torres and Payoa, in the department of Santander.

The hydrocarbon division is formally opened in Independence, where stratigraphic well drilling campaigns were developed for mining in La Guajira, northern Colombia.

That same year, work began in the Ecopetrol fields in the township of Ortega, Tolima, as well as in the Petrobras fields in Icononso and Purificación, in the same department.

Independence obtained and successfully completed its first oil drilling contract, where it worked on the Madrigal well for Lasmo Oil in the township of Guaduas, Cundinamarca. Maintenance work was also performed on the gas wells Texaco, the multinational company in La Guajira, Colombia.

550 HP equipment was acquired with 100% oil vocation for the maintenance and drilling of deeper wells, further expanding the offer made by Independence.

This equipment was located in the department of Meta, in order to meet the demand for well maintenance in the fields located in the township of Apiay, which were managed by Ecopetrol and, in Castilla, managed by Chevron Colombia at the time. These operations have been successfully developed to date.

By the end of 1992, the first drilling contract was developed with Ecopetrol for the Melua 1 well in the department of Meta, making Independence a benchmark in the provision of petroleum goods and services in the country.

Independence Workshops were created, which were able to consolidate and optimize operations that would be reflected from that year forward on the reduction of costs in updating existing equipment and starting up new equipment, thus becoming a great strength point for the company.

Independence was contracted by the U.S. company Geomet to operate its own equipment, including Apache drills, which at the time had the most advanced technology.

Once again, Independence was rebounding with its involvement in the most advanced technologies in the industry.

Thanks to the discovery of the Negrita 1 well, Independence was awarded the intervention, exploration and development of the Guabia field, located in the townships of Girardot, Nilo and Tocaima in the department of Cundinamarca.

750 HP equipment was acquired, which helped to consolidate Independence as an important player in the maintenance of wells throughout the country.

Similarly, and with the aim of growing and strengthening the company, the management decided to continue operating between 550HP and 750HP equipment, thus positioning itself as the first option in this market niche.

On December 23, 2004, a contract was initiated with Hupecol for drilling 3 wells in the department of Casanare, which ended 3 years later with drilling close to 100 wells for this company. This successful intervention reaffirmed Independence as a well drilling company.

Independence creates its first board of directors composed entirely of independent and non-family members.

The company made the decision to unify the drilling fleet, achieving optimizations and gains throughout its operation. At the same time, great innovations were developed within Independence, such as Fast Move, a project that reduced mobilization time between wells by more than 70% and provided great benefits to customers.

Despite the global financial crisis, Independence was consolidated. The company was strengthened despite the large reduction in sales, and in turn, took actions that demonstrated its agile and intelligent capacity to respond to adversity, such as reducing costs, optimizing operations and passing on great benefits to its customers.

In response to the needs of the market and after a thorough investigation of the industry, Independence purchased the first electric drilling equipment, faithful to its philosophy of remaining in the intermediate range of the market in terms of equipment capacity. Between this same year and 2014, the company acquired drilling rigs with capacities between 550 HP and 1,500 HP, these being the most modern and technologically advanced in the country.

At that time, Independence signed one of the largest drilling contracts in the country with Ecopetrol.

2016 was a very difficult year for the hydrocarbon sector in Colombia and Independence faced it hand in hand with its workers, creditors and shareholders, managing to overcome the complications that arose and, in turn, managing to end the year in full compliance with its obligations.

In the second half of this same year, a slow recovery of the industry began, which was consolidated in 2017.

Independence, by working together with its clients, was able to become consolidated as the best company in the service sector and, based on the number of equipment units available, the largest among its peers in Colombia.

Similarly, Independence was able to take part in important contracts offered by the most significant exploration and production companies in the country.

With recovery in sales and the optimization achieved during the times of crisis, Independence was able to recover its work rhythm, as it has strictly honored all its commitments with suppliers, customers and creditors.

During this year, the organization was strengthened in operational and corporate terms, focusing on good practices and relationships with each of its stakeholders. Sustainability and work on behalf of the territories were the banner of daily labor throughout 2018.

Independence culminated a year where the challenges were not negligible; alliances with high impact unions such as ANDI were resumed and commercial bonds were strengthened with new customers who believed in the operational excellence of the company to accomplish satisfaction in each project developed in the country.

The evolution of Independence as a world-class company guided by excellence, ethics, sustainability and innovation, has been strengthened by rethinking its strategies and always seeking to meet its objectives and those of its clients, bringing the company closer to the territories.

Guided by new leadership, the organization seeks to continue increasing its participation in Oil & Gas projects in Colombia, maintaining operational excellence and transforming itself in the areas of innovation, environment, sustainability and clean energy.