Colombia’s oil and gas reserves could be revised up this year compared to 2024, but oil output continues to drop amid a hostile climate to oil and gas, social and security issues, and international majors bailing on Colombia.
Colombia’s oil production could suffer another major blow as the investment climate will further sour after the United States this week stripped Colombia of its so-called U.S. Drug Certification. This means that the Trump Administration no longer believes Colombia is fully cooperating with the U.S. counter-narcotics efforts.
The U.S.-Colombia ties have soured since U.S. President Donald Trump took office, and these continuously deteriorating relations hit a new low with the decertification of Colombia for its failure to fully cooperate with the U.S. in the fight against illicit drug manufacturing and trafficking.
The U.S. placed the blame squarely on Colombia’s leftist President Gustavo Petro for failing to control narcotics groups and reduce coca cultivation and cocaine production.
“In Colombia, coca cultivation and cocaine production have surged to all-time records under President Gustavo Petro, and his failed attempts to seek accommodations with narco-terrorist groups only exacerbated the crisis,” President Trump said in the Presidential Determination submitted to Congress on Monday.
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“Under President Petro’s leadership, coca cultivation and cocaine production have reached record highs while Colombia’s government failed to meet even its own vastly reduced coca eradication goals, undermining years of mutually beneficial cooperation between our two countries against narco-terrorists.”
“The failure of Colombia to meet its drug control obligations over the past year rests solely with its political leadership,” President Trump said.
Yet, he praised Colombia’s security institutions and municipal authorities who “continue to show skill and courage in confronting terrorist and criminal groups, and the United States values the service and sacrifice of their dedicated public servants across all levels of government.”
In response to losing the drug certification, Colombia’s Interior Minister Armando Benedetti told a local radio program that “from this moment on…weapons will not be purchased from the United States.”
The new low in the U.S.-Colombia relations adds further headwinds to the already falling Colombian oil production, although the President determined that U.S. assistance to Bolivia, Burma, Colombia, and Venezuela “is vital to the national interests of the United States.”
