[6][7] Later in 2008 it acquired Kappa Energy, a Colombian exploration company with licenses to 747,000 acres (3,020 km2) of land which included parts of the lower, middle, and upper Magdalena, Catatumbo, and Llanos basins.

Though the deal gives Petrodorado a near joint interest in the Buganviles block (45-49.5%) Pacific Rubiales remains the controlling operator.

In early 2015 as oil prices were declining, Alejandro Betancourt López of Derwick Associates led an investment group to purchase a 20% share of the company for $290 million.

On April 27, 2016 the Pacific Exploration & Production Corporation and its subsidiaries filed for bankruptcy protection,[11] and began the process of restructuring.

[17] In 2011, fields that Pacific Rubiales has a joint or majority interest in accounted for just under 20% of Colombia's oil output.

[19] By 2010, Pacific Rubiales shared joint ownership in many oil fields and exploration projects in Colombia with Ecopetrol and in Peru with Petrodorado.

[29] In 2010, Pacific Rubiales owned properties in the Petén Basin, southeast of major oil fields in southern Mexico with the option to raise its share to 55% by investing as much as US $25.875 million in exploration and drilling.

Ecopetrol's 50% interest in the largest field and internal consumption cost the company roughly half that, bringing its share down to 117,679 b/d (up 14,722 b/d) and 97,142 b/d after royalties (up 9,983 b/d).

[13] In early 2010 total gross daily production (not including royalties based on output levels and crude oil prices) was around 130,000 boe/d compared to about 83,000 boe/d in 2009.

In 2012, during the third quarter of the year the company sold 89,045 b/d of oil and 10,775 b/d of natural gas for a total of 99,820 b/d (down from 101,533) at an average sales price of $95.13 (up from $88.66).

[17] For the 2010 year, total net production was 56,974 boe/d, 67% higher than in 2009; Most of the increase came from growth at the Rubiales heavy oil field.

[27] Pacific Rubiales has been the focus of various controversies over the years, ranging from allegations of collusion with paramilitary death-squads, suppression of labor rights, manipulation of stock prices, and production figures, besides harassment of journalists through ad revenue pressure upon media companies to drop negative coverage.

[36][37] It was alleged that paramilitary forces took some of that land by illegal means before transferring ownership over to Kappa Energy, a company that Pacific Rubiales had acquired in 2008.

Working conditions were also criticized with as many as twenty people living in one tent, according to journalist Alfred Molano in a September 25, 2011 article in the El Espectador.

[34][38] In 2012 the company came under criticism for beginning oil exploration activities on land inhabited by the Matsés indigenous people of Peru.

[40] In November 2012, Colombian journalist Guillermo Quiroz Delgado was covering local protests against Pacific Rubiales, which was accused of exploiting the area's residents.