Colombia oil licensing agency chief Zamora resigns

Armando Zamora, the head of Colombia's oil licensing agency ANH for the past eight years, resigned Tuesday after helping to usher in a surge in oil production that ensured Colombia will remain a net exporter for years to come.

Zamora, who led the government's National Hydrocarbons Agency since its creation in 2003, resigned in a letter to President Juan Manuel Santos.

He said he was quitting because he wanted to return to his professional roots in academia.

Zamora has been dogged by accusations of misuse of oil royalties paid by multinational companies as well as a scandal over allegations that educational scholarships were being unfairly handed out to relatives of top officials.

Local media said these issues may have been related to his decision to resign, but officials at the ANH weren't immediately available to comment.

When the ANH was created eight years ago with Zamora at the helm, Colombia was producing a bit more than 500,000 barrels a day of crude oil and officials were worried the country would be forced to become a net oil importer by 2006.

But with the ANH facilitating the administration and allocation of hydrocarbon exploration, and an improved security situation that made oil exploration in remote areas less exposed to attacks by leftist guerrillas, oil production slowly began to pick up.

Over the past four years the industry began to boom and oil production is now the highest ever recorded, nearing 1 million barrels a day.

A replacement to Zamora is yet to be named.