Bogota, Aug 17 (IANS/EFE): Colombia's Ecopetrol and two US joint venture partners have discovered oil and gas at a deep-water well in the US Gulf of Mexico, the Bogota-based firm said Thursday.

The discovery is the second by the venture made up of US firms Apache and Stone Energy and Ecopetrol America, the Colombian state oil company's US subsidiary, in an area Ecopetrol described as "one of the world's greatest hydrocarbon prospectivity zones".

Ecopetrol said in a press release that the find was made at the Parmer Prospect, located in the Green Canyon blocks 823 and 867.

The well was drilled to a depth of 5,760 meters and the data indicate a column with signs of gas and condensate and another with signs of crude, the spokesperson said.

The state-owned firm added that Apache, Stone Energy and Ecopetrol America will reprocess 3-D seismic data in the coming months and "determine a comprehensive delimitation and development plan based on the results".

The Parmer Prospect, in which Ecopetrol has a 30 percent stake and Apache is the operator, is located some 230 km from the Louisiana coast and covers a roughly 46.6-sq.-km area.

In its press release, Ecopetrol said the find is part of the firm's "internationalization strategy" and marks a further step in its bid "to attain a production level of 1 million clean barrels of oil equivalent a day by 2015, and 1.3 million clean barrels by 2020".

In addition to Colombia and the US Gulf of Mexico, Ecopetrol also has operations in Brazil and Peru.