Colombia has lost relevance on Latin America’s oil production map, according to new International Energy Agency (IEA) projections, while Brazil, Argentina, and even Guyana — a country with essentially no oil industry a decade ago — accelerate output.
In an El Heraldo opinion column, Aquiles Mercado argues that global energy security has moved to the center of IMF and World Bank discussions, with the Iran conflict standing as the top geopolitical risk to oil markets — a blocked Strait of Hormuz or disrupted production, he writes, could create a shortage larger than the pandemic’s and reignite inflationary pressure.
President Abelardo De la Espriella used his first address as president, delivered from Batallón Pichincha in Cali, to declare that recovering Ecopetrol will be an absolute priority of his administration, alongside reactivating hydrocarbons exploration and authorizing fracking under environmental standards.
An extensive El Espectador retrospective, drawing on interviews with more than 10 sector figures, delivers a mixed verdict on the outgoing Petro government’s hydrocarbons record – industry groups call it negative, while the government points to democratic legitimacy for its choices.
President-elect Abelardo De la Espriella named Barranquilla-born Armando Cuello Navarro as the incoming Vice Minister of Energy, joining Minister María Nohemí Arboleda’s team at the Ministry of Mines and Energy.
On Friday, August 7th Abelardo de la Espriella was sworn in as Colombia’s President for 2026 to 2030, a critical period for the county’s energy sector.
The Comisión de Regulación de Energía y Gas (CREG) is moving to modernize how jet fuel is priced in Colombia, combining a regional stakeholder consultation tour with a formal regulatory proposal released within the same week.
President Gustavo Petro signed Decreto 0905 on July 30th, naming Edwin Palma – currently Minister of Mines and Energy – as ad hoc Minister of Labor and ad hoc Minister of Housing, City, and Territory, concentrating three portfolios in one official just a week before the administration’s term ends on August 7th.
Decreto 0526 de 2026 has raised alarms in Cauca after the Compañía Energética de Occidente (CEO) warned the measure will alter the Fondo de Energía Social (FOES) and could push energy bills up by as much as 30% for roughly 178,000 users starting June 1, 2027.
The situation Abelardo de la Espriella inherits on August 7th has a clear statistical signature, according to El País: crude oil production is at its lowest level in 16 years – a figure corroborated by Corficolombiana – the ANH signed zero new exploration and production contracts in four years, gas reserves collapsed to the point where Colombia now imports one third of what it consumes, and the sector has posted nine consecutive quarters of declining performance.
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