Colombia fuel price protests start to impact supply deliveries: sources

Protests in Colombia over rising fuel prices have started to affect deliveries of diesel and jet fuel and could slow the country's oil and gas production, sources said.

The consumer diesel price in Colombia remained stable for four years but recently increased by 45 cents/gal, effective Sept. 2, when President Gustavo Petro ended a diesel price subsidy, according to local media reports. Citizens have responded with protests and attacks on pipelines, according to a statement by state-owned oil company Ecopetrol on Sept. 4.

“The government raised the price of diesel, causing a freight transport strike and generating blockades on the main land routes,” said a market source.

Ecopetrol said the attacks on the Cano Limon-Covenas and Bicentenario pipelines, along with the blockade on transport and the invasion of the Gibraltar gas plant, will impact the production of crude oil and natural gas for the Barrancabermeja and Cartagena refineries. The same market source said this will affect the schedule for product distribution, specifically at airports.

“Jet A1 is distributed by land from fuel farms to airports; due to the roadblocks, the product is not arriving in a timely manner,” said the market source. “At some airports, we are low on inventories.”

S&P Global Commodities at Sea data shows that Colombia imported 4 million barrels of clean products in August, the highest since October 2023, when it imported 4.1 million barrels. The US continues to be the main exporter of clean barrels to Colombia, supplying 3.5 million barrels in August and a predicted 1.5 million in September.

Colombia also received an unusual cargo of 104,900 barrels in August from the Philippines. This is the first time Colombia has received clean products from the Philippines. The MR vessel Wisdom Star loaded in the Philippines on June 12 and discharged at the Mamonal port in Colombia.

Colombia increased the consumer diesel price by 3.2% in 2024 compared to 2023 and raised the total diesel tax to 7.8% in 2024, according to S&P Global Commodity Insights analysts.

Platts, a part of Commodity Insights, assessed the ULSD Colombia Import Parity Price at $90.41/b on Sept. 4.