\n \n \n “. concat(self. i18n. t(‘search. voice. recognition_retry’), “\n
The questionable hydrocarbon-based hydraulic fracturing strategy, known as hydraulic fracturing, that triggered the U. S. oil boom, propelling that country to the rank of the world’s largest oil producer, is attracting abundant attention in Latin America. A primary fracking boom is taking place in the region’s third-largest economy, Argentina, which is boosting oil and herbal fuel production to record levels. Mexico is also adopting the questionable hydrocarbon extraction strategy to boost oil production economically. Hydraulic fracturing is also under attention in Bolivia, Chile and Uruguay, as Latin American economies, hit hard by the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, struggle to drive government expansion and profits while reducing developing poverty. In stark contrast, conflict-torn Colombia is trying to ban fracking, with newly appointed leftist President Gustavo Petro campaigning on an anti-extractivist platform.
During his election campaign, the first leftist president in Colombia’s history said he wanted to end oil exploration contracts and ban hydraulic fracturing in the Andean country. The systems planned by the Petro to reduce poverty. For more than a decade, Colombia has done much more than its weight in hydrocarbon production. Of production, Colombia is the third largest oil producer in Latin America. The expansion of the oil industry over the past two decades, with average annual oil production exceeding one million barrels per day for the first time in 2013, has noted that oil has become a key economic driver.
Crude oil is Colombia’s biggest export, responsible for around a third of the Andean country’s total exports by value. Data from the Colombian government’s statistics agency, DANE, shows that the Andean country exported $12. 1 billion worth of crude oil and oil products in the first seven months of 2022. This represents 35% of all exports, which totaled $34. 6 billion, for the period. Colombian oil production. single largest export. The top oil industry framework, the Asociación Colombiana del Petróleo, estimated that the (Spanish) hydrocarbons sector contributed 20 billion Colombian pesos to government coffers in 2021, which represents a bountiful accumulation compared to the $11, 5 billion generated in 2020, but less than the $26. 2 billion paid in 2019. The industry framework estimates that this amount will exceed 24 billion pesos by 2022. These figures imply that the Colombian oil industry is guilty of generating around one-fifth of government revenue. This underscores the importance of the industry as a source of tax revenue, especially with the Petro management making plans to increase public spending on social systems in a dubious economic environment weighed down by runaway inflation and fears of a global recession.
Related: Oil Falls Below $80 as Powell Warns Recession Could Loom
Colombia’s endemic lack of proven reserves of oil and herbal fuel, coupled with the absence of large-scale discoveries for two decades, indicates that hydraulic fracturing is the only viable way for the Andean country’s important hydrocarbon sector. Reserves are expected to expire around 2030 and earlier if production returns to pre-pandemic levels of around 880,000 barrels a day. Since 2017, Colombia has been facing an herbal fuel crisis, forcing the country to begin loading liquefied herbal fuel in December 2017 This extra underscores the need for Bogota to focus on strengthening energy security and expanding hydrocarbon reserves, especially with plant fuel reserves shown of just 3. 164 trillion cubic feet capable of producing over eight years.
Fracking has long been seen as a solution to Colombia’s limited hydrocarbon reserves. The U. S. EIA The U. S. Department of Homeland Security estimates that Colombia has at least 5. 4 billion barrels of technically recoverable shale oil and 20. 1 trillion cubic feet of shale fuel in the Middle Magdalena and Llanos basins alone. Colombia’s highest administrative court, the Council of State, in a July 2022 resolution, revoked its moratorium on hydraulic fracturing, established in 2018, and rejected a lawsuit to ban hydraulic fracturing in Colombia. The court ruled that regulations implemented through the Duque administration, which departed on August 7, 2022 at the inauguration of Petro, to make hydraulic fracturing legal. The resolution opened the door to the start of advertising fracking operations in Colombia.
However, through Petro’s management, measures are being taken to ban hydraulic fracturing in Colombia despite the decision of the Council of State. fracturing of the exploitation of unconventional hydrocarbon deposits. The bill is backed by the Colombian president, whose Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development, Susana Muhammad, cited having stated in local (Spanish) media:
“We believe that fracking and unconventional ones are not a path that accelerates the energy transition because it would stop it, it has high environmental costs, especially in land use, in water use and irrigation unknown and difficult to know alone, as well as the effect on the very complex Colombian geology,”
For the bill to pass, it must be debated through a congressional committee and discussed in either chamber before being approved and legalized by the Colombian president.
The growing uncertainty around hydraulic fracturing has prompted the Colombian state-owned energy company Ecopetrol to request permission (in Spanish) from the industry regulator, the Agencia Nacional de Hidrocarburos (ANH) Array, to suspend its two pilot hydraulic fracturing projects. for 90 days. Ecopetrol, which is the operator, has partnered with ExxonMobil to expand two fracking projects in the middle Magdalena valley, near the municipality of Puerto Wilches, known as Kale and Platero. The pilots are attracting very broad opposition from the local network, primarily due to water pollution considerations. A Barrancabermeja court ruled in favor of a network organization that tried to stop the projects on the grounds that Ecopetrol did not consult with the local network as required by Colombian law. The Administrative Court of Santander reversed this decision on the grounds that the request for prior consultation through the local network of Afrowilches was inadmissible. These events imply that even if Bill 114 of 2022 is not enacted, opposition to fracking will continue in Colombia, making its arrival fraught with uncertainty, deterring required investment from power companies.
By Matthew Smith for Oilprice. com
More in Oilprice. com:
Not investing in oil and fuel would be the “road to hell for America. “
Chinese oil refineries to increase production as a call for recovery
Putin forces all power to register for military service
Read this article in OilPrice. com