A contentious move by Colombia’s first leftist President Gustavo Petro to end hydrocarbon exploration in the strife-torn Latin American country has exposed one of the domestic oil industry’s long hidden secrets of a crumbling social license. After a series of world-class onshore oil discoveries during the 1980s and 1990s petroleum became an important economic driver. During the early 2000s, Colombia’s slumbering oil boom again roared to life as President Alvaro Uribe promoted the hydrocarbon sector’s development to maximize the economic windfall from petroleum. As a result, Colombia’s oil industry assumes a crucial role in the economic miracle that materialized as the Andean country emerged from decades of civil war and cocaine fueled violence.
A dearth of proven oil and natural gas reserves did not hold Colombia back. During 2013 production peaked at just over one million barrels per day making the Andean country the fourth largest producer in Latin America. While output has declined sharply since then, with government data showing that production fell to a daily average of 754,199 barrels during 2022, Colombia is now Latin America’s third largest oil producer due to Venezuela’s petroleum output collapsing under the immense pressure of strict U.S. sanctions. Data from government statistical agency DANE shows by 2013 that crude oil was responsible for over half of Colombia’s exports by value, 20% of government revenue and 4.5% of gross domestic product. That highlights just how central black gold was to Colombia’s economic miracle during the 2000s which saw it possess one of the fastest growing economies in Latin America. Related: Oil Gains Slightly As Saudi And Russian Officials Meet
This, however, came at a price with Bogota and industry participants turning a blind eye to the impact of industry operations on local communities. Colombia’s oil industry is responsible for considerable environmental damage, with many such incidents obscured from public scrutiny. That is one of the reasons leftist guerillas, the now demobilized Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC – Spanish initials) and the National Liberation Army (ELN – Spanish initials) considered energy infrastructure to be a legitimate target in their struggle against the state. By the early 2000s extortion of oil companies and kidnapping of industry workers had become an extremely lucrative source of income for guerillas, while attacks on pipelines, wellheads and other hydrocarbon infrastructure was common.
In around two decades, the strife-torn South American country became economically dependent on crude oil and the tremendous profits black gold generates. Bogota’s ruthless pursuit of expanding petroleum exploration and development eventually allowed Colombia to emerge as the third-largest oil producer in Latin America as strict U.S. sanctions crushed Venezuela’s petroleum industry. The dependence on crude oil is responsible for considerable environmental fallout and significant community dissent. Oil spills and other incidents became common place, especially as leftist guerillas stepped up attacks on industry infrastructure, notably pipelines, while some drillers demonstrated little regard for the environment. This is responsible for a high incidence of spills, with at least 139 such events occurring between 2011 and 2021, inflaming tensions with communities in the region’s where the industry operates.
There are allegations that many local communities were coerced into approving petroleum projects along with claims that drillers and the national government have failed to deliver the infrastructure, payments and services pledged during negotiations. This is responsible for fanning dissent in the areas where the oil industry operates with most being remote regions with a weak government presence and a dearth of crucial hard and soft infrastructure including roads, schools and health facilities. There is also consternation regarding the alleged collusion of Colombia’s armed forces and right-wing paramilitary groups with industry actors to quell community dissent. It is for these reasons that relations between various community groups, drillers and the national government are strained and explains why road blockades, oilfield invasions and violent community protests are frequent events in regions where the industry operates.
These factors indicate that there is no easy solution to resolving community tensions and Colombia’s…
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