The goal is to energize the industry.

In the face of the threat of losing energy self-sufficiency and the need to consolidate the transition, the main government actors announce their lines of action for the four-year term of President Iván Duque.

 At the installation of the I Oil and Gas Summit, the Minister of Mines and Energy, María Fernanda Suárez, was emphatic in stating that “this is the sector that drives Colombia and we must say it with pride.” What is at stake, she said, is energy self-sufficiency, and in this regard, she pointed out numerous opportunities, such as the possibility of activating smaller fields, as well as increasing recovery, offshore development, and unconventional deposits.

In addition, she announced that Colombia – perhaps during President Duque's term – will drill the deepest offshore well in the world, and that will be thanks to the industry's capacity for innovation and scientific development, “that is something we need to educate about and remember,” she said.

The head of that portfolio also highlighted the sector's contribution to the country's economic growth: “In Colombia, from the year 2000 to 2017, it has contributed more than 225 trillion pesos in royalties, taxes, and dividends, resources equivalent to financing seven times the housing budget, three times the transportation sector, and 65% of the resources for education.» She added that 91% of the royalties that all municipalities in Colombia currently receive are produced by the hydrocarbon industry.

The challenge that the Minister emphasizes, however, is explaining to the country the benefits of the sector, for which it is essential that the resources it generates contribute to transformative projects for the territories, «so that communities truly see and feel the benefit.”.

The National Government is committed to promoting the hydrocarbon sector, she asserted, while also encouraging renewable energies, which should gradually gain ground in Colombia's energy matrix.

[prefix_blockquote cite=»THE INVITATION FROM MINISTER SUÁREZ»]“This industry has focused on the challenges of the subsurface. I invite you to put all that investment capacity, that enormous talent, at the service of the environment and communities, because the challenges of the surface are as important as those of the subsurface; just as we have the best geologists and petroleum engineers, let us have the best sociologists, historians, community development experts, and environmental engineers.” [/prefix_blockquote]

In this sense, she pointed out that President Duque's government has energy transition among its top lines of work, in order to prepare Colombia for the challenges of the fourth industrial revolution. “We are going to introduce unconventional renewable energies and move from 50 megawatts to 1,500 of generation with this source. In addition to that, we are going to introduce new technologies to improve the environment and efficiency in the energy field, and make that transition to renewable energies. This is not a Colombian discourse, it is a global discourse,” she assured, and invited oil and gas companies to reinvent themselves: “We must not only prepare for the future of the next 10 years but for the next 100.”.

Hydrocarbons, the engine of the transition

Luis Miguel Morelli, president of the National Hydrocarbons Agency (ANH), agrees that the most important challenges for the industry in Colombia are to ensure energy security and lead the transition, and he is direct in warning that if sufficient effort is not made “we run the risk of facing a languishing oil industry. We are at a moment of alert, which could lead to the loss of self-sufficiency and also to the productive decline of the regions that grow with oil development.”.
For Morelli, it is wrong to see oil and gas as nothing more than production figures, as the hydrocarbon industry is a growth engine, not only in the areas where it operates but also in the value chains it generates. “From the ventures and commercial activity facing the operation in the field, through service and engineering companies, to banking and academia, this industry energizes the country's economy. We are not just barrels, we are economic and social growth for Colombia,” he emphasized.

[prefix_blockquote cite=»Luis Miguel Morelli.»]“Our commitment is to work decisively and efficiently so that the hydrocarbon industry in Colombia shines again”[/prefix_blockquote]

The ANH has outlined priority routes to recover the dynamism of the sector, with work axes as important as enabling the execution of exploratory investment and improving the competitiveness and positioning of the country. On the sidelines, according to Morelli, the Agency is working on other equally relevant purposes: “We want to strengthen the knowledge management of the ANH so that it is useful for the industry, and identify its information classified as confidential for its release: we have found much in the Colombian Geological System that is not in the hands of companies and we want to democratize it.”.
Additionally, for Morelli, the ANH must pay special attention to the search and development of gas resources, not only to energize the activity but to establish the transition to a sustainable energy matrix. “I reiterate that our commitment is to work decisively and efficiently so that the hydrocarbon industry in Colombia shines again,” concluded the head of the ANH.