
Thursday, April 23rd, 2026
Speaking at the Naturgas industry association congress in Cartagena, Energy Minister Edwin Palma used a wide-ranging address to defend the government’s record on gas supply, reaffirm its no-new-exploration pledge, and signal an upcoming bilateral energy meeting with Venezuela – while acknowledging that past infrastructure decisions have left Colombia dangerously exposed on gas imports.



The Barrancabermeja refinery, Ecopetrol’s flagship processing facility in Santander, has reached its highest crude throughput in twenty years, processing 245,500 bd of crude — a level that has since climbed further to approximately 246,000 bd, according to Milton Lara, the plant’s acting general manager.
The Ministry of Mines and Energy has issued Resolution 40164 of 2026, a new regulatory framework governing the closure and abandonment of oil wells in Colombia that simultaneously tightens environmental safeguards and opens the door to repurposing subsurface infrastructure for clean energy applications.
President Gustavo Petro used a cabinet meeting to announce that expiring Ecopetrol contracts would no longer receive automatic extensions, instead being subjected to open competitive processes.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) opened its Wings of Change Americas (WOCA) conference in Santiago, Chile, with a stark warning about the financial pressure the Middle East conflict has placed on the aviation sector’s fuel supply chain. Peter Cerdá, IATA’s regional vice president for the Americas, told delegates that crude oil prices have climbed from roughly US$70 per barrel before hostilities began to above US$110 today.
Parex Resources, Colombia’s largest independent oil producer, expects its output in the country to grow strongly following its acquisition of Frontera Energy’s Colombian assets — a transaction that will make Parex two to three times larger than any other private operator in the market.
The regasification terminal that Transportadora de Gas Internacional (TGI), a subsidiary of Grupo Energía Bogotá, announced in October 2025 for the Ballena field in La Guajira will not be ready in January 2027 as originally projected — and may now not enter service until early 2028.