The country is in the midst of discussing whether or not new oil and gas exploration and production contracts are required. Although the government of Gustavo Petro has maintained that they will not be granted for the moment, in recent days the Ministries of Mines and Energy, Finance and Commerce indicated that based on the Report on Resources and Reserves that will be presented by the National Hydrocarbons Agency (ANH) in May it will be used to make future determinations.
(César Gaviria’s criticism of the Government’s energy policy).
Among the various factors that the portfolios will take into account are the useful life of the reserves and the status of the contracts already awarded.
For this reason, figures such as contract cancellation procedures become relevant. In the last 12 years, 162 oil contracts have been awarded and cancellation procedures for 67 have been initiated, according to figures from the Agency. This means that for every 2.4 contracts delivered in this range, another already in force has requested termination.
According to the entity, the country has 330 contracts signed for the exploration and production of oil and gas, of these, the Mining and Energy portfolio has already indicated that it will seek to reactivate about 32 contracts that are on hold, mainly for reasons of social order.
Termination of hydrocarbon contracts is a normal process within the allocation of areas itself. These respond to social, environmental, public order or company discretionary motivations.
During 2022, for example, 32 contracts were assigned and similarly, termination procedures were initiated for another 9.
(Conflict grows in oil and mining areas of the country).
Andrés Bitar, Vice President of Promotion and Assignment of Areas of the ANH affirmed during his participation in Colombia generates that “We as an industry are doing something wrong if, on the one hand, we award contracts, but at the same time we are receiving termination requests.”
He explained that although it is normal for there to be terminations, the truth is that this also reflects a series of socialization challenges in the regions, so that the communities recognize the contributions of the companies and the benefits that can be provided to the areas. surrounding.
However, When analyzing the data, it is evident that since 2012 between one and 13 terminations have been requested per year, being 2018 when the maximum number of applications was reached.
Since then there have been ups and downs in these; For example, in 2022 nine were requested and so far this year there is already one.
This is the case of Emerald Energy, which faced a public order situation, notified the ANH of the request to suspend the Ombú exploration and production contract, which through the Capella field had a production of 1,939 barrels per day during 2022.
Reasons for terminations
Of the 67 contracts that have been ending since 2012, 52% of these are due to two reasons: expired phase and autonomy of the contractor, being the causes of 18 and 17 of the requests respectively.
Bitar points out that in the case of an expired phase, this refers to the cases in which the oil companies have pending commitments once their phase has ended, for which reason the ANH monitors this.
(The letters with which Emerald sought to prevent the takeover of the oil field).
“The contract establishes that if the term expires without submitting a discovery notice, evaluation program or declaration of commerciality, it remains immersed in this cause,” clarified.
For its part, the autonomy of the contractor refers to the freedom that companies have to terminate a contract for internal reasons to resign from the area.
In fact, it was for this reason that Emerald Energy relinquished the area assigned to it in San Vicente del Caguan.
With respect to public order situations, the Agency recognizes a series of categories referring to these difficulties. Only public order situations have meant eight of the requests.
For its part, the category of public order and social conflict has meant a cancellation since 2012. Now, public order situations and environmental restrictions have led to the termination of one.
Another category that the ANH recognizes is social conflict, which has led to one case. For its part, the conflict added to environmental restrictions has meant three.
Bitar stressed that the government continues to work to make viable the contracts that are already signed today. For this, close to $45,000 million have been allocated each year for the next four years to ensure that those who are already there can produce. This is in the case, for example, of the contracts that are suspended and that they announced that they would seek to carry out.
Emerald Energy notified the ANH of the request to suspend the Ombú exploration and production contract, in Caquetá, which through the Capella field had a production of 1,939 barrels per day during 2022. The Minister of the Interior, Alfonso Prada, indicated that the Government “It will review the legal lines in response to the request for the cancellation of the company’s exploitation contract and will hold talks at the highest level with the Chinese Embassy and the company to find a way out of the conflict”.
DANIELA MORALES SOLER
BRIEFCASE
