The Refinería de Cartagena (Reficar) returned to normal operations by March 24, 2026, nine days after an electrical supply failure struck the facility on March 15. Ecopetrol confirmed that all processing units are operating normally and that the supply of refined fuels to the national market was maintained throughout the incident.
The decision to halt the Komodo deepwater well – a joint project between Ecopetrol and Occidental Petroleum in the Colombian Caribbean – did not merely delay an exploration campaign.
A Constitutional Court ruling issued in October 2025 — Sentence T-390-25 — has sent shockwaves through Colombia’s oil and gas sector by holding Ecopetrol and its logistics subsidiary Cenit responsible for environmental and human rights damages caused by armed group attacks on the Oleoducto Trasandino (OTA), a 300-kilometer crude oil pipeline in Nariño that has been suspended since 2023 and for which no restart date exists.
NG Energy International filed its 2025 annual results on March 30, 2026 — a document that tells two stories simultaneously: a year of operational turbulence absorbed and resolved, and a company that has fundamentally repositioned itself for a materially stronger 2026.
A trade dispute between Colombia and Ecuador is imposing significant operational and cost penalties on oil producers in Putumayo, forcing Ecopetrol and GeoPark to reroute production through longer, more expensive domestic corridors instead of the Sistema de Oleoducto Transecuatoriano (SOTE) that has historically been the basin’s primary export pathway.
The Petro government issued decrees on March 27, 2026 fixing a 7% salary increase for public servants working in national entities of the executive and judicial branches, with the same adjustment applying to teachers. The increase is retroactive to January 2026.
Canacol Energy Ltd. announces that, on March 26, 2026, the Court of King’s Bench of Alberta granted an order in the Company’s ongoing restructuring proceedings under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (Canada) approving the engagement of Breakpoint Advisory Partners LLC (“Breakpoint”) as Chief Restructuring Officer (“CRO”) of the Company.
Gran Tierra Energy (GTE) announced on March 17, 2026 that it has signed an agreement with Ecopetrol to earn a 49% working interest in the Tisquirama block in Colombia’s Middle Magdalena Valley, which contains the Tisquirama and San Roque fields directly adjacent to Gran Tierra’s largest producing asset, Acordionero.
Ecopetrol closed 2025 with net profits of CoP$9.02T — down 39.5% and the lowest figure since 2021 — capping a third consecutive year of earnings deterioration. What can be done?
In an exclusive interview with Valora Analitik on March 20, 2026, Imad Mohsen, global president of Canadian independent Parex Resources, offered one of the most unambiguously positive assessments of Colombia’s investment climate heard from a senior oil executive in years — and one that stands in pointed contrast to the alarm being sounded by domestic sector associations over regulatory uncertainty and unpaid government debts.
2026, Hydrocarbons Colombia, All Rights Reserved.
