Tuesday, August 4th, 2026
Decreto 0526 de 2026 has raised alarms in Cauca after the Compañía Energética de Occidente (CEO) warned the measure will alter the Fondo de Energía Social (FOES) and could push energy bills up by as much as 30% for roughly 178,000 users starting June 1, 2027.
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.
Colombia’s incoming government faces a hydrocarbon challenge that goes well beyond production and reserves: a systematic theft operation that is simultaneously draining Ecopetrol’s revenues, fueling illegal economies, and evolving faster than the state’s monitoring capabilities.
2026, Hydrocarbons Colombia, All Rights Reserved.
