Two new facilities will cover 26% of nation’s gas demand. Ecopetrol CEO Ricardo Roa speaks in interview in Bogotá
Andrea Jaramillo, Bloomberg News
BOGOTA
EnergiesNet.com 02 24 2025
Ecopetrol SA plans to offset Colombia’s dwindling natural gas reserves by developing two facilities that will allow it to import the fuel starting next year, its top official said in an interview.
With the planned terminals, the state-owned company plans to bring in supplies to make up for a domestic shortfall, Ricardo Roa, Ecopetrol’s chief executive officer, said on Thursday. New wells in Colombia’s Caribbean waters that will boost domestic supply are expected to begin producing the fuel as early as 2029, he added.
“We’ll have long-term contracts of five or more years to bring in those gas molecules which makes all the difference” compared with current contracts that are for a few months, Roa said. That will mean imported gas can be sold at “much lower prices” than now, he added.
Colombia President Gustavo Petro has refused to grant new exploration licenses in order to transition away from fossil fuels. His energy minister, meanwhile, has denied that the nation needs to import gas for homes and businesses — even as suppliers of the fuel have been buying cargoes of liquefied gas from the US and elsewhere to serve them.
Colombia’s commodities exchange has estimated the nation’s demand for gas will exceed domestic production by 5% this year and by 17% in 2026. Meanwhile, gas distributors have warned that fuel prices will rise as much 36% this month in cities including Bogotá and Medellín, given that LNG imports are two or three times more expensive than domestic supplies.
Chuchupa and Buenaventura
The two new import facilities will meet up to 26% of the country’s gas demand, Roa said. The bigger one at Ecopetrol’s Chuchupa platform off the coast of northern Colombia will be capable of handling 200 million cubic feet a day and is expected to be ready in the second half of 2026, he added.
The second, with a capacity of 60 million cubic feet, will be located in Buenaventura on Colombia’s Pacific coast and the LNG will be transported using special vehicles to a regasification facility near Cali, David Riaño, Ecopetrol’s vice president for low emissions, said in the same interview.
The company announced Thursday that its natural gas reserves fell to the equivalent of 6.7 years last year, down from 7.2 years in 2023. Meanwhile, its oil reserves rose to 7.8 years from 7.7 years in the same period.
While the reserve replacement ratio of 104% came in higher than expected, gas remains an ongoing concern, BTG Pactual analysts including Daniel Guardiola and Luiz Carvalho wrote in a report. Ecopetrol shares fell Friday as much as 2% in Bogota.
“Colombia became a net importer of gas last year, and Ecopetrol’s onshore exploration efforts have yet to yield significant gas reserves additions,” the analysts wrote. “The future of gas lies in the offshore.”
Ecopetrol and Petroleo Brasileiro SA announced in December that the Sirius-2 well off the Caribbean coast could triple Colombia’s reserves if the deposit proves commercially viable, making it the country’s biggest-ever natural gas discovery.
bloomberg.com 02 21 2025
