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Pumpjacks in Colombia. Photographer: Nicolo Filippo Rosso/Bloomberg
Colombia’s oil and gas association urged authorities to take “urgent action” after a surge in sabotage attacks on critical energy infrastructure.
A group broke in and set fire to the Quifa field facilities in Meta province in central Colombia on Monday, the association known as ACP said in a statement, the latest in a series of attacks in the region that started May 6.
Frontera Energy Corp., which operates the field, said in a separate statement that the attacks, which also included vandalism of roads, are due to unrest that is unrelated to its business.
In Colombia, protesters sometimes target oil and mining operations to pressure authorities into addressing problems such as inadequate water or electricity supply. These companies are also targeted by armed groups seeking to extort money from them.
Similar events have taken place in Sucre province, on the Caribbean coast, and in Arauca province on the border with Venezuela, ACP said, indicating “a worrying deterioration in security and public order conditions in several regions of the country.”
Since taking office in 2022, President Gustavo Petro has sought “total peace” through negotiations with guerrillas and the private armies of drug traffickers. This has so far failed to yield major demobilizations of these groups, which have taken advantage of the relative lack of military pressure to expand.
Frank Pearl, the head of ACP said last month that the government should reconsider this strategy in order to allow the armed forces to fight these groups more effectively.
The unrest is already affecting oil output, with oil-field services trade group Campetrol estimating production will likely fall to an average of 750,000 barrels of oil per day this year, from 772,700 last year. Besides lower oil prices, conflicts, such as blockades, are curbing output at a time when the nation should be producing 800,000 barrels per day, Nelson Castañeda, the head of Campetrol said in April.
Canacol Energy, a natural gas producer, reported several attacks last month at its Sucre Norte project in Sucre province, including arson attacks on machinery, equipment, and pipelines. State oil producer Ecopetrol SA also reported that operations in the Rubiales and Caño Sur fields in Meta were impacted for a few days after blockades that began March 31, affecting production, maintenance, transportation, project development and drilling activities.
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