Cimitarra, Santander

While President-elect Gustavo Petro, who will be sworn into office on August 7, has promised to ban fracking in Colombia, the outgoing energy minister says that existing contracts allow fracking to proceed.

Semana now reports: “The ruling of the Council of State that left firm the technical regulations for fracking in Colombia also allows companies that have contracts of this type signed with the National Hydrocarbons Agency (ANH) to move towards the exploration and commercial production of hydrocarbons, without the need to wait for the results of the pilots that Ecopetrol advances.”

The article continues:

“There are exactly seven contracts that the ANH signed with different companies between 2013 and 2016 to carry out activities in unconventional deposits. The estimated investments to carry out these projects exceed US$517 million.

[The Alabama, US-based] Drummond Energy has four contracts to fracking in the Cesar-Rancheria basin. For its part, the American ConocoPhillips has two (VMM-2 and VMM-3) and the Canadian Parex Resources has a contract (VMM-9). Both are in the Middle Valley, of the Magdalena.

As explained by the Minister of Mines and Energy, the decision taken by the Council of State has implications on these seven contracts because the process had issued precautionary measures that provisionally suspended a decree (3004 of 2013) and a resolution (90341 of 2014) that contain all the technical regulations for the exploration and commercial exploitation of this type of deposits with fracking.

Therefore, it is not necessary to wait for the completion of the fracking pilots that Ecopetrol is advancing to move towards a commercial exploration and production of hydrocarbons with this technique, which has been questioned in the country and that President-elect Gustavo Petro assured that he will not allow it to be carried out.

“With the ruling that denies the request for nullity, these contracts will be able to move to the environmental licensing stage. They will have to build an Environmental Impact Study (EIA), file it with the ANLA and wait for a decision regarding whether or not to grant them the license,” said Minister Diego Mesa.

It is also important to note that the ruling of the Council of State does not affect the ‘fracking’ pilots that Ecopetrol is advancing. Both will be held in the municipality of Puerto Wilches, in Santander. Kalé has been licensed by the National Environmental Licensing Authority (ANLA) since March of this year, while for Platero the entire respective process is being advanced so that this permit is also granted.

Ecopetrol assured that the pilots are still in the enlistment stage, so no civil works or operational activities have yet been carried out. Kalé is expected to start in October this year, while Platero would do so in the first quarter of 2023. If the pilots prove successful, Ecopetrol would begin the commercial hydrocarbon production stage from 2025.”

Reuters adds: “Neither Drummond nor Parex, which hold four contracts and one contract respectively, were immediately available to comment. A spokesperson for ConocoPhillips, which has signed two contracts, declined to comment on the court’s decision.”

Additionally, in this July 2017 interview, Colombian environmental activist Oscar Sampayo from the Environmental and Extractive Studies Group in Magdalena Medio commented, “What worries us is that in 2014 Parex directly entered Magdalena Medio in block VMM9. This block is located in the municipality of Simitarra in Santander. That block is destined for the development of a nonconventional deposit using fracking.”

When we visited recently visited Colombia, we saw the Parex Resources Aguas Blancas gas operations near Bajo Simacota, Santander.

Furthermore, on January 6, 2022, the Colombian newspaper Portafolio reported that of the 69 blocks auctioned between 2019 and 2021, 26 blocks went to Parex Resources. Eighteen of the 26 bids by Parex were made in December 2021.

We continue to follow this closely.

Photo by CREDHOS.

On July 7, CREDHOS issued this statement that notes:

“Through this urgent action, we request the protection and guarantee of the rights to life, integrity, security and permanence in the territory of YULY ANDREA VELASQUEZ BRICEÑO, President of the Federation of Artisanal, Environmental and Tourist Fishermen of the Department of Santander (FEDEPESAN), who has been a victim of attack, threats and harassment for their work defending their culture, uses and customs, means of subsistence, of the territory, of the water tributaries and ecosystems of special ecological importance in the Middle Magdalena – Santanderean.

One of the main risks against her comes from having had the value of denouncing before the Attorney General’s Office the irregularities in the Public Works contract No. 003-00980-2019 signed by the UT San Silvestre and the Regional Autonomous Corporation of Santander (CAS). This complaint is in the office of the Prosecutor Second Specialized Mobile of the Public Administrative Unit of Bucaramanga. She emphasizes that these complaints to the authorities competent, affect the interests of mafia unions that act within of the public administration and in public and private companies that develop their activities in the District of Barrancabermeja, such is the case of Ecopetrol and Aguas de Barrancabermeja.”

Their statement also includes this message to the international community:

“We ask the Multilateral Human Rights Organizations (Inter-American System of Human Rights and UN) to assist by requesting the Colombian State guarantees for the protection of life, integrity, security and permanence in the territory of the artisanal fishermen of the District of Barrancabermeja and the Middle Magdalena region. Likewise, help is requested in this meaning to international accompaniment organizations.”

Velasquez says: “I had been asking the UNP for the high vulnerability that I am living together with my escort because I work in the rural area, rivers, swamps, pipes, the entire Middle Magdalena, but until today they have not responded because in the office they have a panorama but the leaders, social leaders, human rights defenders in the country have another reality.”

She adds: “We do not know what is happening, we as fishing communities simply do our jobs and we really do not know who or who is behind all this, but we call on the competent authorities who are investigating to find out what is happening.”

Alerta Santandares reports: “The attack against the leader and director of the Federation of Artisanal Fishermen of Santander (Fedepesan), this Tuesday, July 5 in the afternoon in Barrancabermeja, Santander, while meeting at the El Rancho stadium with the treasurer of Asopescan to deliver a report to the fishing community of the region, has the authorities of the Middle Magdalena on alert because it is already the third time that they attempt against the life of the environmental defender, in less than a year. His escort was injured.”

Enlace Television notes: “Human rights associations hope that this fact will be investigated and that the actors who are causing these intimidations will be found.”

And Contagio Radio adds: “The event now, which is also the third attack against the leader (the first was in 2021), occurs again after verifying the San Silvestre and Palotal Swamp. This action was accompanied by the Regional Corporation for the Defense of Human Rights – CREDHOS and by Peace Brigades International – PBI (International Peace Brigades), who rejected the attack.”

We continue to follow this closely.

Photo from Vanguardia.

Clip from Enlace Television coverage.

Photo: On June 28, PBI-Canada met with a PBI-Colombia accompanied CREDHOS convened meeting of social leaders in Puerto Wilches and heard their determination to stop fracking and to defend life, water and territory.

On July 7, President-elect Gustavo Petro tweeted: “There will be no fracking in Colombia.”

This week, Colombia’s incoming environment minister Susana Muhamad also said: “The door to fracking is closed in Colombia, we believe that going to look for the last remnants of gas generates more harm than good. We believe that fracking is not an alternative for a complex such as Colombian ecosystems. We must accelerate the energy transition.”

Administrative Court ruling

But Reuters now reports: “Colombia’s highest administrative court on Thursday [July 7] ruled against a lawsuit looking to nullify rules that would allow fracking projects in the Andean country, effectively overturning a moratorium on the commercial development of non-conventional oil and gas deposits, it said in a statement.”

Commenting on the ruling, the Alliance for a Colombia Free of Fracking says: “This decision is dangerous in the context of the climate crisis and openly inconsistent with the international commitments acquired by Colombia and increases the risk that the implementation of fracking is generating for defenders. and environmental defenders of Magdalena Medio, a territory that has suffered more than a century of oil exploitation and armed violence.”

Ecopetrol pledges to continue with fracking pilot projects

Furthermore, Bnamericas notes: “Colombian state oil company Ecopetrol has pledged to move forward with its fracking pilot projects despite assurances from President-elect Gustavo Petro that the practice will soon be outlawed.”

Ecopetrol says: “We currently have two contracts signed and in force with the [hydrocarbons agency] ANH for the execution of the pilots … from which legal obligations are derived for the company with which we must comply.”

Semana explains: “In December 2020 Ecopetrol and the National Hydrocarbons Agency (ANH) signed a contract to carry out the Kalé pilot, while in June 2021 the contract for Platero was signed. Additionally, since March of this year Kalé has the environmental license granted by the National Environmental Licensing Authority (ANLA), an entity that is also advancing the respective procedure for the Platero permit.”

On June 4, 2021, the Colombian National Hydrocarbons Agency (ANH) and Texas-based ExxonMobil signed a contract that formally authorizes the Platero fracking pilot project to proceed near Puerto Wilches, Santander.

“Complex legal issue” if fracking banned

The outgoing Minister of Mines and Energy Diego Mesa suggests this means “there would be a complex legal issue to resolve” because “there is a right acquired by companies and we have always said that what stands out most internationally in Colombia is legal certainty and respect for contractual agreements and private property.”

This could refer to the investment protection guarantees in Chapter 10 of the U.S.–Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement (TPA), including the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanism that allows a foreign corporation to sue the Government of Colombia through a special court system.

The same provision exists in Chapter 8 of the Canada-Colombia FTA.

Canadian investment in fracking in Colombia

Toronto-based Sintana Energy Inc. has highlighted that it “holds an undivided 30% non-operated participation interest in a Contract for Exploration and Production for Block VMM-37” where the Platero project would be conducted.

In April 2021, the company stated: “Regarding Project Platero, Sintana has been and continues to be in positive communications with both ExxonMobil and the ANH to ensure that the integrity of both the Company’s commercial arrangements with ExxonMobil and the Contract for VMM-37 with the ANH are honored.”

And Calgary-based Canacol Energy Ltd., which holds two nearby “unconventional shale oil blocks”, has previously commented that the Platero and Kalé projects are “positive steps towards realizing the commercial potential of the unconventional shale oil field in Colombia and specifically for the resources prospects that we have through our position in the Middle Magdalena Valley basin.”

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

In April 2021, Canacol CEO Charle Gamba stated: “BGEC’s independent assessment of the prospective unconventional resources reaffirms the materiality and significant potential of Canacol’s unconventional shale oil blocks.”

We continue to follow this situation.

Photo: CREDHOS, PBI-Colombia and PBI-Canada with Yuli Velásquez (in green cap) on the San Silvestre wetland, June 30.

On July 5, PBI-Colombia tweeted: “Today serious attack against environmental leader Yuli Velásquez, president Fedepesan [the Federation of Santander Fishers for Tourism and Environment], leaving an escort injured. It occurs days after verifying environmental impacts in Ciénagas Barrancabermeja with @Credhos_Paz PBI-Colombia and @PBIcanada. Urgent Investigations.”

CREDHOS also tweeted: “Injured escort of Yuli Velasquez president of Fedepesan in an attack that occurred the afternoon of today; Credhos and Fedepesan carried out verification the previous week of the environmental situation and the dumping of waste to the Ciénaga San Silvestre y Palotal de Barrancabermeja.”

Velázquez told El Espectador: “The treasurer of Asopescasan [the Association of Fishermen and Agricultural Producers of the San Silvestre Channel] was going to do me the favor of taking me in his truck, when I left the establishment to inform my escort and ask him to follow me, two assassins arrived, one got off the motorcycle, took out the firearm. Immediately, the escort yelled at me: ‘Yuli, run’, I went back to the establishment, but I fell. When I raised my head and looked at the escort, he was lying on the floor.”

And Enlace Television reports:

“An escort was transferred to the facilities of the Magdalena Clinic who was hit by a firearm, when he was protecting Yuli Velasquez, director of Fedepesan.

According to versions, the events occurred in the El Rancho stateroom, located on the road that leads from Barrancabermeja to the Corregimiento El Llanito, there she was in a meeting with a person from the community action board, when two men shot repeatedly so the man when helping the leader was wounded with a firearm in the face.

The victims filed the deduction with the competent authorities.”

When Yuli participated in a PBI-Canada webinar on April 29, 2021, she said: “We are working hard to stop fracking. Pollution will impact future generations. As fisherpeople we are impacted by water pollution. We can’t allow corporations and contractors to come in and affect the well-being of our communities.”

She added: “We have faced various threats and assassination attempts, but we will continue working and contributing to the protection of the environment.”

We continue to follow this with great concern.