As unconventional production moves forward in a number of production blocks around the country, Colombia’s environmental movement has taken notice, with the first skeptics looking at fracking practices in the VSM 16 block in Huila.
The State Council has supported an injunction filed by Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC), and ruled that regional and local entities cannot establish areas that limit oil or mining activities, as they are an issue of the central government.
After more than a month of protests, blockades and clashes the mayor of Puerto Asís has called on the Interior Minister Juan Fernando Cristo to attend to the indigenous communities concerns to end the deadlock.
The national government says that the National Hydrocarbons Agency (ANH) will open an office in Yopal, Casanare in 2015 to tighten community relations and ensure compliance from operators in nearby fields. Environmental concerns were cited as the motivation for the new strategy.
Some 56 villages in the Putumayo corridor from Puerto Vega-Teteyé have been protesting a plan to expand drilling in the area, arguing that they do not want oil infrastructure that will become a target of the Farc near their communities.
A report issued last week by Colombia’s General Controller placing the responsibility for a drought earlier this year on the shoulders of the oil industry in Casanare has brought the issue back to the front pages, as critics call for greater restrictions on seismic exploration while oil authorities push back.
A report looks at testimony from residents near the exploration block COR 33, which was awarded to Alange Energy, now Pacific Rubiales (TSX:PRE), but has seen activity halted as environmentalists claim a natural reserve coincides with its position.
The General Controller’s office has issued a report that blames a number of manmade influences, including oil production, livestock and rice plantations, for the Casanare drought earlier this year, but singled out seismic activity and the drilling of wells as the main responsible action for the drought.
The National Environmental Licensing Authority (ANLA) has placed restrictions on the disposal of produced water from the Rubiales field into a waterway with the same name, citing the environmental risk for the area surrounding Pacific Rubiales (TSX:PRE) namesake, and largest producing field.
The Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development (MinAmbiente) Luz Helena Sarmiento has broken her silence and addressed the damage resulting from guerrilla attacks on oil infrastructure and tanker convoys.