Colombian President Gustavo Petro is planning to end contracting for hydrocarbon exploration. The plan could endanger the country’s energy security. Some analysts warn that ending contracting for hydrocarbon exploration could trigger an energy crisis in Colombia. Colombia’s leftwing President Gustavo Petro’s plans to end contracting for hydrocarbon exploration have unnerved participants in the Andean country’s economically vital energy patch. That, coupled with meager hydrocarbon reserves and production failing to return to pre-pandemic volumes, points to the growing potential for an energy crisis to emerge. Such an event will sharply impact the strife-torn Latin American nation’s petroleum-dependent economy , place Colombia’s energy security at risk and even jeopardize the planned energy transition. It is a shortage of natural gas, due to declining production from rapidly aging mature offshore fields coupled with steadily rising demand, which poses the greatest threat. Natural gas supply constraints were so severe in 2017 that Colombia […]