Canadian CEO says fracking is “a unique opportunity for Colombia” just prior to Congressional vote

Photo by @ColombiaNoFrack.

This morning, the Alliance for a Colombia Free of Fracking tweeted: “Alert, TODAY the future of fracking in Colombia is being voted on.”

Just yesterday, Portafolio published this interview with Charle Gamba, the Chief Executive Officer of Calgary-based Canacol Energy, who commented: “The extraction of unconventional oil and gas is a unique opportunity for the country.”

The CEO of the company further stated: “The objectives of these [fracking pilot projects in Colombia] are to demonstrate that this important resource can be developed in an environmentally safe way, similar to how the same unconventional resources have been implemented in the United States and Canada.”

(The Vancouver-based Wilderness Committee has reported that there are more than 20,000 fracking wells in British Columbia that pollute half a million water trucks worth of freshwater each year and that traces of the known carcinogen benzene were 3.5 times higher in pregnant women in northeastern British Columbia, where fracking activities are concentrated, than the national average, and six times higher if they were Indigenous.)

VMM-2 and VMM-3 blocks

Canacol holds a 20 per cent stake in the VMM-2/Plata and VMM-3/Piranga projects. ConocoPhillips holds the remaining 80 per cent stake.

Semana Sostenible has reported: “Cesar-Ranchería Basin contains Block VMM-2 and Block VMM-3. Activity in these blocks would interfere with four municipalities in the department of Cesar (San Martín, Aguachica, Río de Oro and Gamarra) and one municipality in the department of Santander (Puerto Wilches).”

“Significant potential” to frack

On April 21, Valora Analitik reported: “Canacol Energy announced today the first results of an independent prospective evaluation of resources in the VMM 2 and VMM 3 blocks prepared by [Calgary-based] Boury Global Energy Consultants (BGEC) in the Magdalena Medio basin, one of the main areas identified to develop fracking pilots in Colombia.”

Gamba stated the results “reaffirm the materiality and significant potential of Canacol’s unconventional shale oil blocks.”

Timeline

In September 2020, Gamba told La Republica: “We are awaiting the regulatory framework, but we hope to run these pilots in the next two years.”

Community resistance

Canacol had previously attempted to frack the Plata and Piranga sites in 2016. An estimated 9,000 people marched in San Martin, Cesar in opposition to this. There was even a community blockade of their exploration site. Residents faced stigmatization, police brutality and criminalization. Those permits were eventually revoked because Piranga did not meet minimum conditions and Plata raised water protection concerns.

National strike and social protests

In May, more than 130 organizations announced their participation in the national strike. Among their demands was the prohibition of fracking. The signatories of this statement include the PBI-Colombia accompanied José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers Collective (CCAJAR) and Regional Corporation for the Defense of Human Rights (CREDHOS).

We continue to follow this situation closely given the human rights and environmental impacts of fracking and the death threats that have been made against prominent opponents of fracking in the Magdalena Medio region of Colombia.

@ColombiaNoFrack tweet: