When the richest man in Colombia writes a $107 million cheque to become the largest shareholder of an oil company that is pivoting hard toward Argentina, it tells you something about where Latin American energy capital sees the future. That future, increasingly, is called Vaca Muerta.
Grupo Gilinski, the sprawling conglomerate built by banker Jaime Gilinski — whose fortune Bloomberg estimates at $32.3 billion — announced on March 5 that its subsidiary Colden Investments had acquired 12.9 million newly issued shares of GeoPark at $8.31 each. The deal gives Gilinski roughly 20% of the NYSE-listed company and an option to increase that to 32%. His son Gabriel takes an immediate seat on GeoPark’s nine-member board.
Why GeoPark Needed This Deal
GeoPark was founded in 2002 with the ambition of becoming Latin America’s leading independent oil and gas company. For most of its history, Colombia was the engine. But that engine has been losing power. Production in its Colombian fields dropped from 41,000 barrels per day in 2019 to roughly 28,000 in 2025 — a 32% decline that left the company with limited room to grow in a country where new exploration has been politically constrained under the Petro government.
The answer was Vaca Muerta, Argentina’s vast shale formation in Patagonia — the largest unconventional oil and gas deposit outside North America. In September 2025, after a failed earlier attempt, GeoPark bought two black-oil blocks from Pluspetrol in Neuquén province: Loma Jarillosa Este and Puesto Silva Oeste. The price was $115 million, with a development plan of $500–600 million through 2028 and up to $1 billion by 2030.
From 2,000 Barrels to 20,000
At the time of acquisition, Loma Jarillosa was producing between 1,700 and 2,000 barrels per day. Puesto Silva Oeste had no production at all. GeoPark’s CEO, Felipe Bayón, laid out an aggressive target: reach 20,000 barrels across both blocks by 2028, which would restore the company’s total output to a plateau of 45,000 barrels per day — roughly matching its 2019 peak before Colombia’s decline set in.
The Gilinski investment gives GeoPark the financial ammunition to execute that plan. The company had been carrying a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.25, and the $107 million injection strengthens its balance sheet at a moment when Vaca Muerta development demands heavy upfront capital.
The Venezuela Card
Perhaps the most striking line in the deal announcement was the explicit mention of Venezuela. Grupo Gilinski stated that it believes Venezuela “may warrant renewed review and prioritisation as the rapidly evolving conditions in the country could position it as a strategic opportunity.” In plain language: if U.S. sanctions continue to ease and Venezuela’s oil industry reopens to private investment, GeoPark wants to be positioned to move fast.
This is not idle speculation. Venezuela sits on the world’s largest proven oil reserves but produces only a fraction of its potential after decades of mismanagement and sanctions. For a company with operational experience across the Andes and Caribbean basin, the prize would be transformational — though the political risk remains enormous.
What Gilinski Gets
For Gilinski, the deal is a diversification play. His empire spans banking, food (he chairs Grupo Nutresa, one of Latin America’s largest food conglomerates), real estate, and media. Energy was the missing piece. The 18-month lock-up period signals this is not a short-term trade — it is a strategic bet on Latin American hydrocarbons at a time when the region’s shale potential is drawing global capital.
The broader signal is hard to miss. Colombian private capital is flowing into Argentina’s energy sector because Colombia’s own oil industry is stagnating. If Vaca Muerta delivers on its promise, this $107 million investment will look like the moment one of Latin America’s savviest dealmakers got in early on the continent’s next great energy story.
This is part of The Rio Times’ daily coverage of Argentina news and Latin American financial news.
For more context, read Brazil’s Morning Call and the Chile IPSA report.
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