Tuesday, August 4th, 2026
President Gustavo Petro signed Decreto 0905 on July 30th, naming Edwin Palma – currently Minister of Mines and Energy – as ad hoc Minister of Labor and ad hoc Minister of Housing, City, and Territory, concentrating three portfolios in one official just a week before the administration’s term ends on August 7th.
Back for only a single day, Ricardo Roa delivered his farewell address as Ecopetrol president on July 30th, closing a tenure marked by controversy that now has him facing judicial scrutiny.
Ecopetrol raised its natural gas contribution to 97 GBTUd to help cover the deficit created by the scheduled maintenance of the SPEC LNG regasification plant, which ran from Thursday, July 30th to Monday, August 3rd.
The Ministry of Mines and Energy reported that scheduled maintenance at the SPEC regasification terminal in Cartagena reached 79% completion as of the morning of August 2, with the ministry projecting 86% progress by midnight and full completion by midday August 3, followed by a cooling phase ahead of restart.
Minister Edwin Palma used the opening of the Foro de Gas 2026 in Bogotá on July 30 – the same day SPEC’s scheduled five-day maintenance began – to issue a formal government guarantee of continuous essential gas and electricity supply through August 3.
SierraCol Energy’s 2Q26 operational update, released July 23rd, tells a story of externally imposed disruption rather than underlying asset deterioration.
Vice president-elect José Manuel Restrepo delivered the incoming government’s clearest statement yet on Ecopetrol’s future, declaring that the new administration will pursue “a thorough transformation starting with the structural, strategic issue” at the state oil company.
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