Colombia's new president, Abelardo de la Espriella, has pledged to authorize fracking to reverse the country's sliding oil and gas output. Proven oil reserves fell nearly 1% and natural gas reserves plunged 17% year on year, pushing Colombia toward costlier LNG imports even as it sits on billions of barrels of untapped shale.
Colombia's new president, Abelardo de la Espriella, has pledged to authorize fracking as part of a push to reverse the country's declining oil and gas production, reopening a fight that has divided the Andean nation for years.
Reserves keep shrinking
Data from Colombia's National Hydrocarbon Agency shows proven oil reserves fell nearly 1% year on year to 2.02 billion barrels at the end of 2025. Natural gas reserves fared worse, plunging 17% year on year to 1.717 trillion cubic feet, a multidecade low that leaves the country with barely six years of supply at current production rates.
Petroleum generated $7.7 billion, or 28% of Colombia's total export earnings, during the first half of 2026. For decades, oil rents accounted for more than a tenth of Bogotá's income, but that revenue began drying up in 2022 after then-President Gustavo Petro hiked taxes on extractive industries, froze new drilling contracts and committed to prohibiting fracking.
Petro's ban effort foundered in Congress
Petro fought to formally prohibit fracking throughout his term, including a last-ditch July 2026 attempt to secure a nationwide ban that foundered in Congress. His policy shift forced Ecopetrol to suspend two fracking pilots it was developing with ExxonMobil in the Middle Magdalena Valley, and ExxonMobil later exited the Andean country along with other drillers that slashed spending.
As a result, Colombia's 2026 budget deficit is feared to blow out to a record 8.1% of GDP, as tax receipts collapsed just as escalating violence drove security spending sharply higher. That gap could widen further as De la Espriella pours more money into a broad military offensive against illegal armed groups.
LNG imports grow costlier
Colombia is increasingly reliant on imported natural gas, which already supplies around a quarter of domestic consumption and is forecast to reach one-third by 2027. Natural gas prices have surged by as much as 36% in some parts of Colombia over the past year. October and November 2026 LNG contracts to the country are priced 79% higher than February 2026.
Shale potential remains untapped
The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates Colombia holds 6.8 billion barrels of technically recoverable shale oil and 54.7 trillion cubic feet of technically recoverable shale gas. The Middle Magdalena Valley's La Luna formation alone is estimated to hold 4.6 billion barrels of risked recoverable shale oil and 18.3 trillion cubic feet of shale gas.
De la Espriella called energy security a matter of national sovereignty at his inauguration last month and said rebuilding Ecopetrol is essential to unlocking those resources.
Source: Oilprice.com
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