Investment in Colombia’s oil and gas production is forecast to decline by 7% to $3.5 billion in 2024, the Colombian Petroleum Association (ACP) said in a press conference in Colombia’s capital Bogota on Thursday.
The government of leftist President Gustavo Petro has made a priority of weaning Colombia away from dependence on fossil fuels, especially oil and coal, despite industry warnings about impacts to the Andean country’s energy self sufficiency.
Earlier this year, the government’s National Hydrocarbons Agency (ANH) reported that Colombia’s proven oil and gas reserves declined at the end of 2023 to the equivalent of 7.1 years of consumption and 6.1 years of consumption respectively.
The government needs to provide incentives to boost exploration and increase production, the ACP said, calling for lower pipeline tariffs and guarantees to provide security in the country’s conflict-ridden countryside where many energy companies operate, among other measures.
“We have a very, very tight time frame,” ACP president Frank Pearl told journalists. “We have to do this now.”
While production spending is set to drop, the ACP forecasts investment in exploration will grow 5% during the year to $1.1 billion, some $700 million of which will go into exploration for gas, the industry group said in a presentation.
The ACP also forecast Colombia’s oil production would average between 780,000 and 790,000 barrels per day, while potential gas production was forecast at 1.02 billion cubic feet per day.