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Conflict-torn Colombia has been hit hard by the 2020 pandemic. The Andean nation’s economy has shrunk by 7% while poverty, corruption, lawlessness and violence have skyrocketed. These events have caused a marked increase in the occurrence of oil thefts, which has increased particularly since 2016. In addition to the pandemic, there are a wide variety of reasons for the immediate increase in oil thefts in Colombia. Among the most important is the very important role of gas as an element used to manufacture cocaine. The surge in oil theft comes as Colombia’s cocaine production soars, despite US-backed interdiction efforts through Colombia’s national government. Significantly higher oil costs are also to blame for a significant buildup of oil theft around the world. The ongoing US crackdown on narcotics trafficking, coupled with harsh consequences for perpetrators, is forcing criminal enterprises to seek other lucrative but less harmful activities. The rise in oil theft coupled with a collection of other geopolitical headwinds pose a serious risk to the Colombian oil industry that has yet to recover from pre-pandemic operations. America’s decades-long war on drugs has done little, if anything, to decrease drug trafficking and cocaine production. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), cocaine production in Colombia in 2021 reached a new record for the 3rd consecutive year. The UNODC report estimates that Colombia (Spanish) produced a record 1,400 metric tons of cocaine, which was 14% more than in 2020. The domain used to cultivate coca, the plant whose leaves produce the alkaloid that forms hydrogen hydrochloride. cocaine. , jumped 43% year over year to 500,000 acres. This happened despite efforts by the Duque management to suppress cocaine production, as evidenced by the destruction of 5,767 cocaine labs in 2021 compared to 5,226 in 2020.
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Colombia’s unique geographic and geopolitical features facilitate oil theft in this crisis-ridden country. The Andean nation’s mountainous terrain, as well as a lack of transportation infrastructure, means pipelines are the only cost-effective way to ship oil produced in the conflict-torn country to ports, garages and processing facilities. These pipelines pass through remote areas, many of which are fatal shock zones with a weak state presence, making them vulnerable to sabotage and the application of illegal valves used to steal borrowed oil. A weak Colombian state combined with decades of civil strife, which has seen the proliferation of armed teams financed with cocaine proceeds, further increases the threat of oil theft in the Andean country. Then there are the dire consequences for drug trafficking, combined with the repression efforts of the U. S. and Colombian governments, which see many corrupt companies seeking lucrative but less harmful revenue resources.
For these reasons, oil theft in Colombia is booming and various criminal gangs have emerged committed to destructive and harmful activities. Colombia’s largest coca cultivation dominance of the moment and a damaging flashpoint with many illegal armed teams vying for the region’s lucrative illicit economy. These come with paramilitary teams, the National Liberation Army (Ejército de Liberación Nacional – ELN), FARC dissidents who did not settle for the 2016 peace deal, and remnants of the Popular Liberation Army (Ejército Popular de Liberación – EPL) that demobilized in 1991. These teams are engaged in coca cultivation, cocaine hydrochloride production and various smuggling activities.
According to knowledge published through Reuters, the volume of oil thefts in Colombia between 2016 and 2021 has almost doubled. It was estimated that 3,299 consistent barrels of oil per day were stolen in 2021, or 0. 44% of Colombia’s total annual production of 738,000 consistent barrels per day, up from 1,796 five years earlier. Much of Colombia’s stolen oil is processed in clandestine refineries in the jungle where it is used to produce a crude form of gas called “pategrillo,” due to its murky green color. This rudimentary gas is used to process coca leaves into the production of cocaine paste. Some of this primitive fuel, as well as stolen oil, is smuggled into Venezuela, where dilapidated refineries, intermittently incompatible with operation, along with a shortage of raw fabrics, have unleashed crude soft oil fabrics. a chronic shortage of combustible. la corruption in Venezuela, combined with a lack of state control, not only facilitates the smuggling of fuels and oil to the troubled OPEC member, but also facilitates the sale of those products.
Colombia’s increased oil theft has immense costs, not just for the economically important oil industry that is collapsing in its efforts to return to pre-pandemic production volumes. There are abundant environmental hazards with illegal valleys related to oil spills from Colombian pipelines cause much damage to the delicate local ecology. This is even more worrying given that Colombia is one of the most biodiverse countries in the world. It also leads to the expansion of cocaine production, which is the main source of income for the myriad illegal armed teams operating in Colombia and blamed for maximum violence in conflict zones across the country. This violence continues to manifest itself in an accumulation of murders and massacres in the Colombian countryside and in the forced displacement of the civilian population.
By Matthew Smith for Oilprice. com
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