Oil was first found in the Norte de Santander department near the border with Venezuela in 1905, but development did not start until 1936.

A joint venture between the Texas Corporation and Socony-Vacuum (now Texaco and Mobil) sank the wells and built a 263-mile (423 km) pipeline across the mountains and through swampy jungle to the Caribbean coast at Coveñas.

The oilfield lies in the Norte de Santander department, in the east of the country, in the Catatumbo River basin.

To the west it is bounded by the Santander Massif and the Sierra de Perija, parts of the Cordillera Oriental, a northern extension of the Andes.

[4] Virgilio Barco Martinez[a] was granted the concession on 16 October 1905 in the Catatumbo region of the Norte de Santander department.

[6] Colonel Barco had led victorious forces in the recent Thousand Days civil war, and was given the concession in return.

It was Henry Latham Doherty of Cities Service Co. which owned 75% of the Colombian Petroleum Co. (capitalized at $5 million and not necessarily identical to the Compania).

[10] The Colombian Petroleum Company, now a subsidiary of Cities Service, failed to develop the concession and sold out to Gulf Oil in 1926.

In 1930 the State Department facilitated discussions between the oil companies and newly elected Liberal president Enrique Olaya Herrera.

[15] Under the new arrangement, Gulf regained the concession on condition that it build a pipeline to the sea, and pay royalties on any oil delivered of 6% to the government and 3.5% to colonel Barco's successors.

[7] The Colombian government would not allow the pipeline to take the easier route to Lake Maracaibo, since about 140 kilometres (87 mi) would pass through Venezuelan territory.

[19] Most of the equipment and supplies were carried by air, a total of 5,000,000 kilograms (11,000,000 lb), landed on airstrips hacked out of the jungle.

This included a suspension bridge 76 metres long (249 ft) as well as vehicles, power plants, plumbing and food.

[1] Colpet airplanes flew a regular schedule from Cúcuta to company airstrips at the Covenas terminal and the Tibú and Río de Oro camps, with less frequent trips to Bogota and to Petrolia, once the main base.

A 1954 article in Flying Magazine called the Motilone people "the world's most unfriendly citizens" and said they "have pin-cushioned more than 120 oilfield hands since 1936."