Minute30.com .- Shell’s recent decision to sell its gas exploration assets in Colombia marks a new milestone in a trend that worries the national energy sector: the progressive withdrawal of large international oil companies from the country. With its departure from the Fuerte Sur, Purple Angel and COL-5 blocks, located on the southern coast of the Caribbean, the multinational joins a growing list of companies that have decided to reduce or abandon their operations in Colombia.

In recent years, companies such as Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Repsol, Cepsa and ExxonMobil have followed similar paths. In 2020, ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips suspended their exploration activities in blocks associated with fracking contracts in the departments of Cesar and Santander, a decision that was interpreted as a sign of caution regarding the country’s regulatory and social environment.

In the case of Chevron, the company sold its participation in the emblematic Chuchupa and Ballena fields, located in La Guajira, to Hocol, a subsidiary of Ecopetrol. These areas represent a crucial part of the natural gas supply in Colombia and their transfer reflects the difficulty of retaining foreign investment in strategic areas of the energy sector.

Added to this chain of divestments is the analysis that Shell would be doing on other assets, such as the COL-3 block, developed in conjunction with Noble Energy, a company today part of Chevron. If this sale is completed, it would reinforce the perception of a systematic withdrawal from the country by the main players in the global oil sector.

The departure of these companies has raised alarms about the country’s ability to guarantee its energy self-sufficiency. The president of Shell in Colombia, Liliana Gómez, recently warned during the Naturgas Congress that each year of delay in oil and gas projects “erodes between 10% and 15% of the value of the project,” and called for generating regulatory consensus to reduce the levels of uncertainty that investors face today.

Julio César Vera, director of the Xua Energy Foundation, summed it up forcefully: “It is worrying for the country that companies considered the best are leaving the country.” Their concern refers to the structural impact that this may have on Colombia’s energy planning in the medium and long term.

The outlook, although not yet irreversible, requires a coordinated response between government, industry and society to regain confidence in the Colombian market and ensure the necessary investments to develop the country’s energy potential, especially on the gas front, which is key to the energy transition.

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