Colombian drivers will feel another pinch at the pump starting Friday, October 24, as the Energy and Gas Regulation Commission (CREG) announced an increase in fuel prices.
Petrobras’ (NYSE: PBR) entrance into Colombia’s offshore energy landscape could mark a turning point for the country’s energy security. Together with Ecopetrol (NYSE: ECP), the Brazilian company is leading the Sirius gas project, a deepwater discovery that could restore Colombia’s self-sufficiency in natural gas for at least a decade.
Colombia’s energy transition has become a defining challenge for the oil and gas industry, demanding a delicate balance between maintaining energy supply and reducing carbon emissions. Notably, nearly 70% of Hitachi Energy’s industrial revenue in Colombia comes from projects developed with oil and gas companies.
The Colombian government is reaffirming its commitment to energy security through the planned regasification plant in Ballenas, La Guajira, a cornerstone project expected to strengthen the country’s natural gas supply over the next decade.
Recently, we published an article that showed what happened when the country’s only regas facility, SPEC, closed for scheduled maintenance. One might have expected that since SPEC programmed the maintenance well in advance, some planning might have avoided any stress about shortages. We look for evidence of that planning. (UPDATE: Technical difficulties overcome and graphs and full text now loaded.)
This is the sad story we all know about gas production in Colombia. (We show Gas Delivered to the Pipeline, which impacts household consumption and thus the politics around gas.) Ecopetrol down. Everyone else also down. But for the appropriately grey area there are distinct stories.