Monday, June 8th, 2026
Colombia’s June 21 presidential runoff between Abelardo De la Espriella and Iván Cepeda will be, among other issues, a referendum on economic model: a pro-business, hydrocarbon-led growth agenda on one side versus a continuation of Gustavo Petro’s statist, redistributive project on the other. For the energy sector, the contrast could hardly be starker.

Parex Resources Colombia used an article in El Espectador to mark its track record under Colombia’s Works for Taxes mechanism — the scheme that allows companies to redirect a portion of their income tax obligations directly into public infrastructure projects in historically underserved regions.
The Unión Sindical Obrera issued a communiqué on May 30 calling on Colombians — and oil and gas workers in particular — to vote in the presidential election with the country’s energy future as their primary consideration.
President Gustavo Petro summoned three Ecopetrol board members — Hildebrando Vélez, Alberto José Merlano, and board chair Ángela María Robledo — to the Casa de Nariño on June 1, according to sources speaking to Valora Analitik.
Colombia’s environmental licensing authority ANLA used a June 1 press release to frame its recent activity on liquefied natural gas infrastructure in explicitly strategic terms: the accumulation of approved and pending regasification projects along the Caribbean coast is the country’s most concrete near-term tool for expanding gas supply, increasing competition, and improving prices for end users.
Colombia’s main oil sector union, the Unión Sindical Obrera (USO), launched a 24-hour work stoppage at Ecopetrol on June 2, citing what it described as a complete breakdown in negotiations over a new collective labor agreement.
Three senior voices in Colombia’s energy sector used a La República forum panel on May 29 to deliver a coordinated indictment of current energy policy — and a set of prescriptions the next government will need to act on quickly if a blackout is to be avoided in the second half of the year.