Following the recent events against the oil structure and other acts of insecurity in the country, the National Hydrocarbons Agency (ANH) reported that it has received more than 60 requests for termination of contracts in the last year.
The Vice President of Promotion and Assignment of Areas of the ANH, Andrés Bitar, informed that the contracts that request termination were notified exploratory activity and estimated that this was the same number of agreements reached during the government of former President Iván Duque.
“As an industry we are doing wrong if on the one hand we sign 60 contracts in four years, but in a single year we are receiving requests for determination of multiple contracts,” said Andrés Bitar who added that “we cannot continue thinking that hydrocarbons are going to save us for the rest of life, we have to start thinking about other sources.
According to Bitar, public order problems in Colombia continue to arise because it has not been possible to close the social gaps, especially in the regions.
It may interest you: They warn that the burden of health reform will fall on territorial entities
In this sense, the vice president of the ANH stated that it is time to reduce Colombia’s dependence on hydrocarbons; at the time, Andrés Bitar recognized that the resources provided by this sector are key to financing the energy transition.
“We cannot continue thinking that hydrocarbons are going to save us for the rest of our lives.we have to start thinking about other sources of wealth generation and employability, without wanting to say under any circumstances that tomorrow we are going to pay for the switch to gas and oil,” he said.
In this sense, the Vice Minister (e) of Energy, Cristián Díaz, commented that for the moment no new contracts will be awarded. However, he pointed out that this does not mean “never again new contracts.”
“You have to continue exploring because there are contracts that for different reasons are not doing exploration activities. The first thing is to review what is there and put everything to work as far as possible and what is already working, see how we can improve it, ”added the vice minister (e).