Campetrol warns of potential loss of oil sovereignty in Colombia

Nelson Castañeda, president of the Colombian Chamber of Oil, Gas and Energy Goods and Services (Campetrol), warned during the IX Oil, Gas and Energy Summit in Cartagena that Colombia faces a critical energy crisis. He reported that the country has already lost sovereignty in natural gas, which has seen production drop from 1,000 million cubic feet per day in 2015 to approximately 700 million cubic feet per day recently.

This decline has forced Colombia to import significant amounts of gas at costs three to four times higher than a decade ago. Imported gas accounted for 40 percent of the total national supply in October. Castañeda cautioned that without a change in direction, the country could also lose sovereignty in oil.

Key industry indicators show a sharp decline in activity: oil production has fallen from one million to 731,000 barrels per day over the last eleven years, and no new exploration and production contracts have been signed since August 2022. Additionally, active drilling rigs decreased from 60 to 31 between late 2022 and late 2026, while exploration discoveries plummeted from 100 million barrels in 2015 to just 4 million in 2025. To address these challenges, Campetrol proposed a 4x4 Plan to leverage contingent gas discoveries and reduce import dependency.