ByIrina Slav– Feb 05, 2025, 3:30 AM CST
Colombia’s president, Gustavo Petro, has canceled a joint venture between state energy company Ecopetrol and Occidental Petroleum on environmental concerns regarding hydraulic fracturing.
Bloomberg reported that Petro had shared his concern on national TV, saying he was against a recent expansion of the deal between Ecopetrol and Oxy because it involved fracking, going counter to his energy policy efforts, which center on the transition away from hydrocarbons to alternative sources of energy.
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“I want that operation to be sold, and for the money to be invested in clean energies,” Petro said at a livestreamed cabinet meeting. “We are against fracking, because fracking is the death of nature, and the death of humanity.”
The call to dismantle the joint venture comes barely a day after Ecopetrol announced the extension of the deal with Oxy, which is focused on the Permian Basin—the most prolific shale play in the United States, with hydraulic fracturing the standard practice in such unconventional oil and gas deposits.
“With this investment plan in 2025 from Ecopetrol Permian, to develop assets in the Midland and Delaware sub-basins, we could be drilling about 91 development wells, with an investment that exceeds $880 million,” the chief executive of the Colombian state oil firm said in a statement on Tuesday, as quoted by Reuters.
Ecopetrol produces some 95,200 barrels of crude daily in the Permian, based on 2024 figures, which accounts for 12% of its total oil production. However, President Petro is a staunch opponent of the oil and gas industry and an ardent proponent of the energy transition. Fracking is banned in Colombia.
In September last year, the Colombian government announced a plan to spend $40 billion on shifting away from oil and gas, and replacing revenues from the hydrocarbons industry with other sources of government income. The money would be spent on what the publication called “nature-based climate solutions”, along with low-carbon energy, transport electrification, agricultural practices improvement projects, and projects for biodiversity protection.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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