After the Council of State firmed up the technical regulations issued by the Ministry of Mines and Energy for the exploration and exploitation of natural gas and oil in unconventional deposits through the technique of hydraulic stimulation and multistage drilling of source rock, known as ‘fracking’, the government said they are seven contracts of this type are those that remain active and that can advance.
(See: Council of State leaves safe rules that allow ‘fracking’).
According to him Minister of Mines and Energy, Diego Mesa Puyo, with the decision of the high administrative contentious court, in which the request for annulment of a decree and a resolution of the Ministry was denied, which alleged that the principle of environmental precaution was not being complied with, that the right to have a healthy environment and that natural resources were not going to be optimally exploited, what follows is that, legally, these seven suspended contracts are enabled to move on to the environmental licensing part.
“They will have to build an environmental impact study, file it with the National Environmental Licensing Authority (Anla) and wait for a decision regarding whether to grant them an environmental license.”, indicated the official, emphasizing that the legal discussion that had been going on for three years in the Third Chamber of the Council of State was settled, for which, with the substantive ruling, all the regulations for the exploration and exploitation of deposits remain firm. unconventional with ‘fracking’.
(See: ‘We have legal obligations with ‘fracking’ pilots: Ecopetrol).
Diego Mesa Puyo, Minister of Mines and Energy.
According to data from the National Hydrocarbons Agency (ANH), these 7 exploration and production contracts, which are located in the basin Cesar-Rancheria and in the basin Middle Magdalena Valley, they were suspended because they depended on the decision of the Council of State.
Of this total, there are four contracts in charge of Drummond Energy Inc. called Additional La Loma, CR2, CR3 and CR4, signed in December 2016 and with associated investment commitments for 153 million dollars. Two others are in charge of Conoco Phillips (VMM2 Additional and VMM 3 Additional contracts) with associated investments of 170.5 million dollars. And one more is in charge of the company Parex Resources, called VMM 9, whose investment is 193 million dollars.
(See: ‘We seek the closure of ‘fracking’: Muhamad, Minambiente de Petro).
But despite the Government’s claims, sources from one of these companies explained that, before making a decision to initiate an environmental license process, First, the lawyers will analyze in depth the details and implications of the judgment of the Council of State, whose text is not yet known.
In addition, they explain that since the incoming government of President Gustavo Petro has already assured in several forums that there will be no ‘fracking’ during his administration, they are waiting for the measures that can be taken from August 7.
(See: In July, ‘fracking’ pilot Kale plans to drill).
In addition, they indicated that another aspect to clarify is whether, before filing an application for an environmental license, it is first necessary to wait for the pilots to be carried out so that the country can decide whether to advance in fracking based on scientific and technical evidence. , since a possible scenario is that in an environmental license process for these 7 projects, Anla argues that first we must wait for the result of these pilot tests.
According to Minister Diego Mesa, the pilots are not affected by the failure, because the Council of State had already ruled favorably regarding the regulations for these tests, which are progressing according to the schedule and one of them, which is Kalé, already has an environmental license from Anla, while the pilot project Platero is just at the stage of the process of applying for the environmental license.
But, precisely, the sources of the sector emphasize that, legally, if these pilots demonstrate that the technique is viable from various points of view such as environmental, geological, social and technical, among other aspects, this situation does not give companies the green light to move forward immediately with the phase of exploration and exploitation of gas or oil, but must wait for a State decision.
WEATHER – ECONOMY
