Analysts say that Colombia must develop a natgas plan soon to prevent blackouts.

If it wants to prevent power blackouts in Colombia, the head of Wood Mackenzie’s Americas Gas and LNG division said that Colombia needs to decide quickly whether it will focus on LNG imports or promote domestic production of natural gas.

Colombia, under leftist president Gustavo Petro has moved away fracking in order to develop its reserves shale oil and gas. A Santa Marta court judge ordered earlier this month that work be suspended on a major offshore gas project run by Ecopetrol, the state-controlled company and Brazil's Petrobras.

Experts say that the two strategies will be crucial to ensuring gas supply to the country's industrial and utility sectors in the future.

The Guajira fields (onshore) will continue to decline steeply. If you create a scenario with a dry hydrology and no domestic gas supply, you'll eventually face the risk of blackouts," Wood Mackenzie’s Mauro Cavez said in an interview at the Gastech Conference in Houston.

He added that if incentives and authorizations are not given to encourage the domestic production of gas, the country will be forced to increase its capacity to import LNG, which will require construction of a new regasification facility, something that hasn't been planned, and the signing up for supply contracts.

He said that the country must decide if it wants to depend on LNG imports or support its own production.

Ecopetrol, Colombian Government Ministries and Petrobras have "joined together to appeal to the judge's ruling and be able restart the activities," Ecopetrol Chief Executive Officer Ricardo Roa stated in a video shared with journalists Thursday.

Roa said that this discovery was crucial to ensuring the energy security of the country.

The court ruled that the companies failed to consult the local indigenous community properly about the Tayrona offshore exploratory block.

National Hydrocarbons Association, a government agency, reported that the Uchuva-2 well, which was suspended, is an important hope to help Colombia's gas reserves, which were estimated at 2.4 trillion cubic foot last year, or 6.1 years' worth of consumption.

The potential reserves of the project are 2.5 times Colombia's present reserves. Reporting by Marianna Pararaga, Georgina McCartney and Oliver Griffin in Houston and Marguerita Choy in Bogota.

(source: Reuters)