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The Colombian stock market became briefly the best-performing bourse in the world on June 1, with the MSCI Colcap index surging around 6% in early trading after Abelardo de la Espriella topped the presidential first round with 43.7% of the vote, a margin well above what Wall Street consensus had expected.

Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) — the propane-butane blend sold in cylinder form in Colombian homes — is emerging as an increasingly strategic energy source at precisely the moment the country’s natural gas supply is under the greatest pressure it has faced in years.

Colombia’s crude oil exports hit their highest level since July 2022 in April 2026, reaching US$1.62B for the month — a surge driven not by increased output but by Iran War-driven price strength in international markets.

The Petro administration has designated 1.5 million hectares of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta as a Renewable Natural Resources Reserve, barring new mining concessions and hydrocarbon exploration and production contracts across the entire area.

Foreign direct investment in Colombia’s oil sector fell more than 7% year-on-year in Q1 2026, reaching US$589M against US$634M in the same period of 2025, according to Banco de la República data.

If Abelardo De la Espriella wins the June 21 runoff, Colombia’s upstream sector should expect an immediate and deliberate reversal of the Petro administration’s anti-hydrocarbon posture.