News and AnalysIs for

So earnings season comes to an end and, apart from a few special charges, a generally positive one. Brent over US$100/bl will do that. But, unsurprisingly perhaps, that is not what people are talking about

President Gustavo Petro launched a wide-ranging attack on Ecopetrol, political opponents, and business sectors in an extended post on X, centering his fire on what he described as the state oil company’s refusal to reduce its gas demand in the face of an accelerating climate crisis.

With a super El Niño expected to hit Colombia in the second half of 2026, Ecopetrol has outlined a two-track gas strategy: expanded import capacity and aggressive energy contracting to insulate the company from spot market volatility.

Colombia’s National Hydrocarbons Agency (ANH) has announced what it describes as landmark reductions in gas flaring and methane emissions across the hydrocarbons sector, framing the results as a signature environmental legacy of the current administration.

Colombia’s Ministry of Mines and Energy is developing a formal roadmap to cut methane emissions from the hydrocarbons and coal sectors, in partnership with the Latin American and Caribbean Energy Organization (OLACDE).

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.

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.

With Colombia now a net gas importer and conventional production in sustained decline, energy sector voices are pushing hydraulic fracturing back onto the national agenda as the most credible lever for reversing the country’s hydrocarbon trajectory.

Ecopetrol has obtained water use certification for five additional production fields, bringing the total number of certified assets to 23 — a roster that includes the Barrancabermeja and Cartagena refineries.