Colombia's newly inaugurated president, Abelardo de la Espriella, has pledged to revive the country's oil and gas sector, permit tightly regulated fracking, and restore state oil company Ecopetrol after four years of predecessor Gustavo Petro's anti-fossil-fuel drive. The reversal follows sharp declines in output, foreign investment, and Ecopetrol's profits, and comes alongside a new investment plan of up to $7 billion, about 70% of it earmarked for upstream oil and gas.
Colombia's newly inaugurated president, Abelardo de la Espriella, pledged in his inauguration speech in Cali on Friday to revive the country's oil and gas sector, permit tightly regulated fracking, and restore state oil company Ecopetrol S.A. (NYSE:EC). The move reverses four years of anti-fossil-fuel policy under Gustavo Petro, Colombia's first left-wing president, who banned new oil, gas and coal exploration contracts and pushed the country toward wind and solar power.
According to de la Espriella in his inauguration address: "that transition must be built from strength, not from weakness". He argued that self-sufficiency, not dependence, should underpin the country's energy transition.
Petro's ban left output and investment lower
Petro's four-year fossil-fuel freeze took a toll on Colombia's energy sector. Foreign direct investment in mining and oil fell 34% to roughly $6.9 billion between 2023 and 2025. Average domestic oil output dropped 4% to 746,000 barrels per day. Colombia's crude oil reserves also shrank by 54 million barrels. Natural gas imports surged to 31% of domestic consumption by 2025, up from just 3% in 2023.
Ecopetrol's profits sank to the lowest since 2017
State oil company Ecopetrol also felt the squeeze. Last year, the company's full-year profits fell nearly 40% to roughly COP 9 trillion (~$2.85 billion), the lowest level since 2017. Revenue dropped 10.2% year-over-year to COP 119.7 trillion (~$38.0 billion). Petro also ordered the termination of a Permian Basin joint venture with Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) last year. He had previously blocked a $3.6 billion deal for a 30% stake in shale producer CrownRock.
A $7 billion plan targets upstream growth
Ecopetrol's 2026 investment plan, now being adjusted to align with de la Espriella's expansion mandate, targets total investment between COP 22 trillion and COP 27 trillion, roughly $5.7 billion to $7 billion. About 70% of that budget is earmarked for upstream hydrocarbons. That upstream push will fund as many as 430 development wells primarily within Colombia. The remaining 30% will go toward power transmission, road infrastructure and cleaner energy initiatives, though direct renewable energy projects are expected to make up only about 3% of that segment.
Still, de la Espriella is unlikely to dismantle the renewable capacity Petro built up. Colombia's renewable capacity grew from 200 megawatts in 2022 to more than 4,300 megawatts by 2026. Solar generation overtook coal-fired power for the first time in 2025. His government appears set to run oil, gas and renewables side by side, using hydrocarbon revenue to help finance the transition itself.
Source: Oilprice.com
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