Last week, Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella signed Directive 06, by which his government hopes to expedite the prior consultation process especially for high-priority energy projects like Sirius. Here we go deeper into the detail. Somehow, this all sounds terribly familiar.
President Abelardo de la Espriella has issued a directive that reshapes how Colombia handles prior consultation with ethnic communities, replacing three earlier presidential directives.
Colgas, Ecopetrol subsidiary Hocol and the Tierralta municipal government have launched a synthetic natural gas (SNG) network in Tierralta, Córdoba, aimed at replacing firewood for household cooking. SNG is a propane-air mixture, so the town can be served without a link to the national gas transport system.
Interior Minister Rodrigo Lara has presented a plan to speed up Colombia’s prior consultation process, the community consultations required before many energy, mining, and infrastructure projects can proceed.
Ecopetrol launched a new call for applications to select more than 300 students in technical, technological, and professional programs for internships during the first half of 2027, with opportunities available across 24 cities and operating fields nationwide.
Ariel Daniels De Andréis, governor of Taganga’s indigenous cabildo, directly disputed Ecopetrol’s characterization of the community’s prior-consultation demands for the Sirius gas project.
Ecopetrol and the UK Embassy awarded four Colombians — one from Cartagena, one from Barranquilla, and two from Bogotá — Chevening-Ecopetrol scholarships to pursue master’s degrees in energy transition, sustainability, and climate change at UK universities.
Colombia’s Minister of the Interior, Rodrigo Lara, announced changes to his ministry’s Dirección de Consulta Previa, on President Abelardo De la Espriella’s instruction, aimed at speeding up investment and infrastructure projects the government considers priorities.
Colombia’s State Council issued a ruling delimiting the right to protest and establishing civil liability for those who paralyze productive economic activity through violent means, overturning a Meta administrative tribunal’s earlier dismissal of an Ecopetrol claim.
Sirius, the offshore Caribbean gas project Colombia is counting on to restore natural gas self-sufficiency, faces a bottleneck from a single unresolved prior consultation with Taganga, an artisanal fishing community near Santa Marta, financial demands Ecopetrol has characterized in stark terms.
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