Colombia’s mining-energy sector is projected to post a 0.3% GDP contraction in the second quarter of 2026, extending a decline that traces back to the first quarter of 2024.
We easily accept that 18th Century technology was radically different from today, but we can be shocked to find that human and political issues haven’t changed.
Colombia’s Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development swore in its new leadership team on August 13, including Sergio Arturo Piñeros Botero as director of the Agencia Nacional de Licencias Ambientales (ANLA) — the agency responsible for environmental licensing of major hydrocarbons projects, from offshore exploration wells to pipeline infrastructure like SPEC’s recent capacity expansion.
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.
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