Can Colombia’s New Government Reverse the Nation’s Oil and Gas Decline?

Colombia’s president-elect Abelardo de la Espriella is expected to reverse policies that constrained oil and gas investment, potentially supporting the country’s battered hydrocarbon sector. The article argues that Colombia’s declining crude and natural gas output has driven higher LNG and fuel imports, worsened inflation, and increased pressure on the fiscal and external accounts. Oil production in April 2026 was 724,910 barrels per day versus 915,087 a decade earlier, while gas output fell to 694 million cubic feet per day, near a multi-decade low. De la Espriella plans to reopen exploration, defend Ecopetrol, promote gas as a transition fuel, and allow tightly regulated fracking pilots. Market implications are broadly positive for Colombian energy producers and oil prices locally, but the policy shift is framed as a response to energy security and macroeconomic stress rather than a direct global crude catalyst.