Regulations for fracking in Colombia to be ready this year, fracking to begin in 2020

Peace Brigades International-Canada and allies are organizing a speaking tour this coming November 2-8 featuring Colombian human rights defenders concerned about the impact of fracking on the environment, human rights and the peace process in their country.

Latest news from Colombia

Late last month, Reuters reported, “Colombia’s state-run oil company Ecopetrol will be ready to start fracking pilot projects in the second half of 2020, chief executive Felipe Bayon said on [September 25], as oil companies await federal regulatory guidelines for the projects.”

Bayon notes in that article, “I think in the second half of next year, we will be ready to start drilling. The ministry is working on the protocols. They’ll take some months, those will come out, and then we can apply for the licenses.”

Reuters has also reported that Ecopetrol plans to spend $500 million over the next three years on these pilot projects starting in the Magdalena Medio region.

Then on October 2, Valora reported, “Regulations for fracking pilots in Colombia will be ready before the end of 2019: ANH.”

That article notes, “The president of the National Hydrocarbons Agency (ANH), Luis Miguel Morelli, said [on October 2] that the government is moving forward in the regulation of fracking pilots that would begin to develop in 2020.”

That article also highlights, “The official said the regulation would include guarantees for investors who place money to develop pilots in the country.”

Impact on Colombians

The United Nations Development Programme has highlighted that, “Colombia is at high risk from climate change impacts.”

The Bogota Post has also reported, “It is Colombia’s campesinos, who have already borne the brunt of a long conflict, who are likely to be hit hardest [by climate change].”

And the Alliance for a Colombia Free of Fracking has stated that fracking activities would be in violation of Colombian constitutional principles that guarantee citizens the right to life, the right to water, and the right to a healthy environment.

Opposition to fracking in Colombia, calls to ban fracking

The Bogota Post has reported that there were Global Climate Strike protests on September 20 in Bogota, Medellín, Cali, Santa Marta, Tolima, and Ibague.

That article also reported, “Friday, September 27 will see more action from Fridays for the Future in Bogotá, this time outside Ecopetrol’s headquarters where activists will take a direct stand against the fossil fuel giant’s leading role in fracking in the country.”

And The Guardian recently reported that a global campaign backed by 450 activist groups and celebrities has called on United Nations Secretary General António Guterres to endorse a global ban because fracking “torpedoes our global efforts to tackle climate change and violates basic human rights”.

Speaking tour in Canada

Julia Figueroa and Andrea Nocove from the Luis Carlos Perez Lawyers’ Collective (CCALCP) and Ivan Madero from the Regional Corporation for the Defence of Human Rights (CREDHOS) will be speaking and attending meetings in Toronto (November 3), Ottawa (November 4-5), Vancouver (November 6-7) and Nanaimo (November 8).

For more on that, please see Colombians to speak in Canada as fracking threatens human rights in their country.