Monday, April 20th, 2026
Ecopetrol has commissioned Colombia’s first wet-pelletized sulfur solidification plant at its Refinería de Cartagena (Reficar), opening a new downstream business line that could supply up to 70% of domestic demand and generate export volumes for European markets.
The Unión Sindical Obrera (USO), Ecopetrol’s principal labor union, announced the creation of a scientific committee to evaluate the feasibility of hydraulic fracturing in Colombia — a move that placed the union in direct conflict with Energy Minister Edwin Palma, a former USO president himself, who promptly called his former colleagues mistaken.
The Colombian government will co-host the First International Conference on Transition Beyond Fossil Fuels in Santa Marta from April 23 to 29, organized jointly with the Netherlands.
Colombia’s energy and gas regulator CREG has opened a regulatory sandbox pilot to test potential changes to the liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) market before committing to permanent regulatory amendments.
With Brent crude surpassing US$100/bbl on the back of the Middle East conflict, Colombia’s foreign exchange market is facing a moment of redefinition – and ANIF’s latest analysis warns that the textbook relationship between oil prices and the peso can no longer be taken for granted.
Ecopetrol exceeded its own exploration targets in 2025, drilling 16 wells against an original plan of 10 and achieving a success rate that acting president Juan Carlos Hurtado described as the best in the company’s history.
S&P Global Ratings cut Ecopetrol’s long-term credit rating from BB to BB- with a stable outlook in April, following its simultaneous downgrade of Colombia’s sovereign rating — the worst in the country’s history at that level.
2026, Hydrocarbons Colombia, All Rights Reserved.
