The Ministry of Mines and Energy sent a formal request to Ecopetrol president Ricardo Roa on March 4, 2026, requiring a detailed report on the volumes of natural gas consumed by the company’s refineries during 2025 and the current year to date.
Energy and Mines Minister Edwin Palma met on March 17, 2026 with U.S. Embassy Chargé d’Affaires Jarahn Hillsman and his economic team to review bilateral cooperation and investment opportunities across Colombia’s energy sector.
Ecopetrol’s regasification strategy has been forced into a pivot: the Coveñas project in Sucre, which had been billed as a 110 MMcfd import terminal, has effectively been shelved as a near-term priority after a series of bureaucratic delays, while the Puerto Bahía terminal in Cartagena — developed in partnership with Frontera Energy — has been accelerated to fill the gap.
Naturgas president Luz Stella Murgas used a March 18, 2026 interview with El Heraldo to preview the agenda and ambitions of the upcoming Naturgas Congress, to be held in Cartagena from April 15 to 17 — the association’s most prominent annual gathering.
Against the backdrop of Venezuela’s first LPG shipment to Colombia and a new Campetrol report showing 2025 oil production down 3% and gas output down 17%, Colombian Petroleum Association (ACP) president Frank Pearl issued a pointed call for domestic energy self-reliance.
Two regasification projects at different stages of development — one on the Pacific coast and one on the Caribbean — are moving forward this month, offering the near-term additions to Colombia’s gas import infrastructure as domestic field production continues to decline.
Petrobras and Ecopetrol announced on March 18, 2026 the confirmation of a new natural gas discovery in the deep waters of the Colombian Caribbean, with the drilling of the exploratory well Copoazú-1 in Block GUA-OFF-0. The companies stated that “the discovery consolidates the gas province and the hydrocarbon potential in this area, while adding a greater volume of gas to contribute to the country’s energy security.”
Energy and Mines Minister Edwin Palma has acknowledged that cheap Venezuelan gas imports could fundamentally alter the economics of Colombia’s domestic supply plans – potentially undermining the commercial rationale for the offshore Sirius project and curtailing the market for regasification infrastructure.
Ecopetrol president Ricardo Roa used the company’s 2025 financial results presentation to directly address and reject allegations — circulating from anonymous sources — that Colombia’s state oil company had been deliberately withholding gas injections at fields such as Floreña to manufacture artificial shortages and sustain elevated gas prices.
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.
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