Colombian crude production will fall this year due to the bombing of oil pipelines, civil disorder and decreased investment in new drilling, warned Campetrol.
The country’s oil production could fall more than 7% to a daily average of 700,000 barrels this year.said the Colombian Chamber of Oil, Gas and Energy Goods and Services, or Campetrol, in a report presented this Wednesday.
Read: Would the price of oil go back below 80 dollars per barrel?
The gloomy forecast comes as President Gustavo Petro’s Administration awaits updated data on oil reserves that would be the basis for energy policy in general. Petro was elected last year on the promise of weaning the nation away from reliance on fossil fuels.
(Would the price of oil go back below $80 per barrel?).
Oil companies have asked the government to suspend some 60 contracts due to public order problems, Campetrol said. Sinochem Group’s Emerald Energy requested a stay after local residents stormed his Amazon oil project earlier this year and took dozens of police officers and workers hostage. Attacks on pipelines are also on the rise.
Attacks on pipelines are also on the rise. The country’s Cano Limon-Covenas pipeline has recorded seven incidents during the first quarter, half the total for all of 2022, according to the pipeline unit of state-owned Ecopetrol SA.
Bloomberg
