The commercial and diplomatic “war” between Colombia and Ecuador has reached a new and critical level of tension this Tuesday, January 27. In a measure described as direct retaliation, the government of Daniel Noboa decided to increase by 900% the transportation rate for Colombian oil that transits through the Trans-Ecuadorian Pipeline System (Sote).
The cost, which was previously three dollars, jumped dramatically to thirty dollars per barrel, mainly affecting Ecopetrol’s finances.
The Minister of Environment and Energy of Ecuador, Inés Manzano, confirmed that this decision is an act of “reciprocity” in the face of the suspension of the supply of electricity by the Government of Gustavo Petro and the recent imposition of crossed tariffs.
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According to the official, Ecuador is providing a strategic service so that national oil can reach the port of Esmeraldas and go out to the international market, avoiding the Colombian border areas where constant attacks by armed groups prevent the safe transportation of crude oil.
For his part, Colombia’s Minister of Mines and Energy, Edwin Palma, categorically rejected the measure, calling it “unilateral and arbitrary.”
The official assured that the Ecuadorian government is using the fight against drug trafficking as an “excuse” to sour the political environment and violate international agreements in force since 2011.
According to Palma, Colombia was ready to start a frank dialogue, but Quito’s response was a new aggression that especially hits small oil producers in the south of the country.
This escalation is in addition to the 30% “security rate” that Ecuador will apply to Colombian imports from February 1 and the mirror tariff that Colombia has already imposed on more than twenty Ecuadorian products. While diplomacy seems stagnant, the union sector warns that the cost of living on the border will skyrocket.
Minister Palma called on the oil union to look for logistical alternatives so as not to depend on the Ecuadorian infrastructure, ensuring that “they are looking for the failure of the brotherhood of two peoples, but it will not happen.”
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