The Antonio Ricaurte pipeline — the 225-kilometer infrastructure connecting Lake Maracaibo to Colombia’s La Guajira department — sits at the center of the Petro government’s most ambitious near-term gas supply strategy, but a cascade of technical, legal, and contractual complications make reactivation a far longer and more costly undertaking than official rhetoric suggests.
GeoPark, the oil and gas company now led by Felipe Bayón — the former Ecopetrol president — has suffered two consecutive failures to close transformative acquisitions in Colombia, leaving it without the scale it was seeking while Ecopetrol and Canadian rival Parex Resources step into the positions GeoPark had coveted.
Colombia’s Ministry of Mines and Energy has confirmed a high-level meeting with U.S. government officials to advance an OFAC license that would allow Ecopetrol and ISA to reactivate bilateral energy projects with Venezuela.
The Petro government has formally ended gasoline subsidies paid through the national budget, while simultaneously defending an ongoing cycle of pump price reductions now complicated by a sharp spike in international crude prices driven by Middle East conflict.
A high-level Colombian delegation traveled to the Palacio de Miraflores in Caracas on March 14 after a planned border summit between President Gustavo Petro and Venezuelan acting president Delcy Rodríguez was cancelled for force majeure.
Ecopetrol outlined a 2026 investment plan ranging from CoP$22T to CoP$27T during its investor call following 2025 financial results, allocating 70% to traditional oil and gas operations and 30% to energy transition initiatives. It also confirmed it was “kicking the tires” on Canacol’s assets.
Colombia’s OCAD Paz approved 97 projects totaling CoP$1.91T for the country’s 16 PDET subregions under the second call of the 2025-2026 biennium. The initiatives will be financed through Peace Allocation resources from royalties (SGR) and were endorsed during session 86 held at the National Planning Department.
Colombia’s Superintendent of Public Services (SuperServicios) has launched an investigation into “pure commercializers” of natural gas—intermediaries who purchase and resell gas in the secondary market without serving end users—amid concerns that excessive intermediation is driving up residential and commercial tariffs.
SierraCol Energy delivered a 109% 2P reserves replacement ratio in 2025 – marking its ninth consecutive year exceeding 100% – while navigating temporary production restrictions. and completing a change in ownership.
President Gustavo Petro’s administration is defending the continued tenure of Ricardo Roa and Jorge Carrillo at two of Colombia’s most strategically important state enterprises despite escalating legal controversies surrounding both officials.
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