Colombia Orders Dismantling of Network Stealing 123,700 Barrels of Fuel per Month

Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella ordered on August 23 a joint operation by the Armed Forces, the National Police, the Attorney General's Office, and state oil company Ecopetrol to dismantle a network stealing approximately 123,700 barrels of fuel per month, Aristegui Noticias reported.

The theft is concentrated on a 14-inch pipeline connecting Pozos Colorados, in Santa Marta, with the country's interior, and losses are located in the departments of Cesar and Magdalena, El Tiempo detailed. The stolen fuel, gasoline, diesel, and naphtha, is imported or produced by Ecopetrol. "If this pace continues, we would be talking about more than 1.5 million barrels per year, with losses exceeding 500,000 million pesos for Ecopetrol," the president warned, in Colombian pesos. The scale of the theft shows that hydrocarbon theft remains an energy security risk across the region, beyond the well-known cases in Mexico, and the ordered response puts state-company coordination to the test.

The president linked the theft to drug trafficking: the stolen fuel is used as an input in illicit cocaine processing, and the so-called "death caravans" mobilize up to 600 vehicles, several headed for the Catatumbo region, according to information provided by the president. "I don't want us to only pursue the one who pierces the pipe. The entire chain must be dismantled," De la Espriella stated, pointing to financiers, extractors, transporters, depots, buyers, and final recipients, and requested that authorities determine what quantity ends up in narco-trafficking structures. The president cited the Trans-Andean Pipeline and the Caño Limón-Coveñas stretch in Catatumbo as precedents for illegal crude oil seizure.

The operation will be coordinated by Defense Minister General Jorge Mora, encompassing intelligence, territorial control, criminal investigation, and asset forfeiture, in coordination with the Attorney General's Office, CENIT, an Ecopetrol subsidiary, and the Ministry of Mines and Energy. The operation's progress and the identification of final recipients will be the key data points to watch.

This article was written with artificial intelligence assistance based on verified sources and reviewed by a human editor before publication.