Ecopetrol and Colombia’s security forces have agreed to coordinate efforts to fight oil theft, which allegedly cost the state-run oil company $936 million (COP3.6 trillion) since 2019.
According to Ecopetrol, illegal armed groups and organized crime stole 5.3 million barrels of crude oil and 52 thousand barrels of refined products from the company in the past five years.
Ecopetrol CEO Ricardo Roa said that the company had identified some 5,000 illicit taps that are used to steal crude oil from its pipelines.
These taps allowed oil thieves to steal approximately $415 million (COP1.6 trillion) in oil from the company since 2019.
Cleaning up after these thieves cost Ecopetrol another $275 million (COP1 trillion), according to the company.
Ecopetrol said that the oil theft cost the company an additional $252 million (COP973 billion) in lost State subsidies.
The theft affected both the Caño Limon pipeline that pumps oil from oil fields in the northwestern Arauca fields to the Caribbean coast and the Transandino pipeline between the southern Putumayo province and the Pacific coast.
In an attempt to lower the cost of crime, Ecopetrol and the security forces allegedly agreed to invest more in military intelligence, checks on oil transports inside Colombia and an increased presence of security forces near oil infrastructure.
This coordination with the State’s institutions and security agencies will allow us to be more forceful against organized crime in the theft of hydrocarbons.
Ecopetrol CEO Ricardo Roa
The illicit oil trade is a major revenue stream for illegal armed groups like the ELN and the AGC, as well as a network of companies that launder the oil for foreign buyers.