Norwegian energy company Statoil said it was taking a strategic bet by gaining early access to deepwater reserves off the coast of Colombia.

Statoil said the award of the COL4 license in the Caribbean Sea marks its debut in the country. The company will split the rights equally with Spanish energy company Repsol and the Colombian subsidiary of Exxon Mobil.

Nick Maden, senior vice president for Statoil's exploration in the region, said the commitment includes only an early exploration phase in the license area.

"Deepwater offshore Colombia is virtually untested," he said in a statement Wednesday. "The award of new acreage in this frontier area is in line with our exploration strategy of early access at scale."

The country is in the middle of a three-day investment conference aimed at courting foreign investors to its energy sector.

Much of the country's oil is focused inland in the foothills of the Andes and in the Amazonian jungle. Colombia holds an estimated 2.4 billion barrels of crude oil reserves, though offshore is considered frontier territory.