Guerrilla attacks on pipelines threaten Colombia’s oil production

For more than a year, Colombia’s oil producers have worked without fear that a pipeline explosion or other act of sabotage would interfere with their activities. Now, the quiet time is over. Colombia’s guerrillas are on the warpath again.

Two weeks ago, Colombia’s state oil and gas operator, Ecopetrol, reported five attacks on two major pipelines. The Cano Limon-Covenas pipeline was attacked three times, the Ecopetrol Cenit subsidiary informed, and the Bicentenario pipeline suffered two attacks. The company added that the Colombian army was deployed in the area of ​​the attacks on the Cano Limon-Covenas pipeline to protect the personnel repairing the infrastructure.

Conformable Bloombergthere have been at least 14 attacks on oil pipelines in Colombia since late August after talks between the ELN guerrilla group and the Colombian government broke down. Said talks have been going on for about a year, with several interruptions whenever the ELN disagreed with what the Gustavo Petro government offered.

The group, inspired by the Cuban revolution, is the world’s oldest guerrilla organization, dating back to 1964 and numbering more than 5,800 members by 2022, according to the data. AFP. Sabotaging infrastructure is a favorite tactic for the group to extract concessions from the government. Oil pipelines are a natural target in a situation not unlike Libya.

Oil exports account for about a third of Colombia’s export earnings, meaning that any impact on oil production would have an impact on oil exports and consequently on state revenues. Indeed, when Ecopetrol issued an operations update earlier this month, it said the pipeline attacks had affected its production.

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“The unavailability of the aforementioned pipelines due to the attacks, added to the difficulty in moving tankers with hydrocarbons and liquefied petroleum gas, may affect the production of crude oil and gas in the coming days, as well as supplies to the Barrancabermeja and Cartagena refineries and fuels in different parts of the country “, the company said in a statement last week.

This is rather unfortunate for an industry that has been struggling for years – not least due to pipeline attacks – and now faces a new challenge from the Petro government, which wants to reduce the share of hydrocarbons in the oil mix. revenues of Colombia.

Indeed, last year the Colombian government halted the issuance of new oil and gas exploration permits as a way to combat climate change. movement he shook himself industry and observers, with some warning that it would compromise its economic future by making it more exposed to international oil prices as domestic production declines due to natural depletion.

However, Gustavo Petro’s commitment to a transition away from oil and gas has something to say about it: it would reduce the leverage the ELN has with the pipelines as targets for acts of sabotage. Unfortunately, the transition would provide ample new targets in the form of wind and solar installations – the transition goals of Colombia’s first left-wing president, whose ban on new oil and gas permits should have been welcomed by the ELN.

“The ELN believes that the oil companies have managed to obtain contracts that are very advantageous for themselves but harmful for the country,” Carlos Velandia, a former senior commander in the ELN, told Bloomberg.

The publication explained in a recent story that the guerrilla group believes Colombia should have full control over its natural resources, perhaps in a Venezuelan style. Apparently, until that happens, the means of extracting these resources and transporting them to markets will continue to be targeted as lasting peace with the Colombian government remains elusive.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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