The resilience of a fundamental sector for Colombia: liquid fuels

The liquid fuels sector in Colombia and all the agents that make up the chain know the word resilience very well. They have faced enormous and unimaginable challenges such as the Covid-19 pandemic, impacts from road infrastructure problems, national strikes, among others, without stopping for a second their effort to ensure the supply of fuels to all corners of the country.

We are still not aware that liquid fuels are an essential service in our daily lives, as they enable our mobility, the transportation of food, raw materials, medicines, and all kinds of goods and services, and electricity generation in non-interconnected areas.

Behind the guarantee of fuel supply in the country, there is a whole distribution chain made up of refiners, importers, biofuel producers, transporters, and wholesale and retail distributors. There are 270,000 people whose work makes it possible for fuel to reach the entire national territory.

This supply is carried out through 2 refineries (Barrancabermeja and Cartagena), 5 ports (Cartagena, Barranquilla, Santa Marta, Buenaventura, and Tumaco), 16 biofuel production plants, more than 4,000 km of pipeline network, approximately 60 wholesale supply plants with storage capacity close to 10 days of consumption, and various land and river routes through which fuel is distributed to more than 6,000 service stations.

In the chain, we find 23 wholesale distributors that play a fundamental role, as they are the ones who have the supply plants, technology, and infrastructure to manage the fuel supply in Colombia, with high operational, environmental, and social standards; in addition to innovations to reduce the carbon footprint and advance in the energy transition.

Wholesale companies facilitate the operation of the rest of the agents in the chain by providing infrastructure, technology, human talent, and good operational practices. For 2023, the fuel distribution chain has planned investments of $3.3 trillion. In the wholesale segment, the investment will be aimed at the adaptation and expansion of supply plants, the maintenance of the network of stations, environmental and social investment, projects for self-generation with renewable sources, and research in hydrogen and in renovations and technological developments.

This demonstrates the intention of wholesale distributors to continue betting on the country with their efforts to improve the reliability and quality of the fuel distribution service to consumers.

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