Colombian national company Ecopetrol and Brazilian oil giant Petrobras announced Thursday a “huge discovery” of offshore natural gas that could “double this country’s reserves.” Located in the Colombian Caribbean, off the coast of the city of Santa Marta, this gas field was in fact discovered in 2022. Its reserves are now estimated “at 6,000 billion cubic feet of gas (around 170 billion m3)” and it This is the “most important well discovered since the 1990s,” Ecopetrol revealed on its X account.
This gas field “has the potential to double Colombia’s reserves,” declared Rogerio Soares, general director of Petrobras’ exploratory assets, during an event in Cartagena (north). Its size is comparable to that of the Cuchupa field in Riohacha (north), which has supplied gas to the country for 45 years.
Hydrocarbons account for 2.8% of Colombian GDP
This announcement comes the day after the government of left-wing President Gustavo Petro announced a $40 billion financing plan for the energy transition to free the country from its dependence on oil, gas and coal. .
Elected in mid-2022 as the first left-wing president in the history of Colombia, President Petro, a critic of extractivism, particularly wants the public company Ecopetrol – the country’s largest employer with 33,000 employees – to specialize in renewable energies. It suspended new oil exploration contracts. This policy is vilified by the conservative opposition and unions in the sector, who advocate a “gradual transition without compromising economic security”.
The hydrocarbons sector accounts for 2.8% of Colombia’s GDP, according to official figures from the statistical authority (Dane). Oil is one of the main export products of Latin America’s fourth-largest economy. Colombia has been experiencing an exceptionally hot season in recent months, with a drought that has increased the risk of energy shortages and power cuts, experts warn.
Gas imports that exploded
According to figures from Naturgas, the national association of gas companies, in 2025 Colombia will experience a gas deficit equivalent to 7.5% of total demand, and in 2026 this deficit will increase to 16%.
In the midst of a water crisis caused by the El Niño climate phenomenon, Colombia has increased its gas imports by 2,500% between 2022 and 2023. Natural gas covers between 25 and 30% of national energy demand, according to figures from the industry.
