• Colombia's national environmental licensing authority (Anla) has given the green light to the first fracking site in the country's history.
• Hydraulic fracturing of rock is a highly controversial technique for extracting hydrocarbons.
• Environmentalists are rallying against this decision, even at the risk of being threatened.

The fact that Colombia's economy is closely tied to the extraction of fossil fuels is nothing new. In 2020, oil production averaged over 730,000 barrels per day, and unconventional deposits hold a potential output of between 3 and 9 billion barrels. Until now, however, the technique of fracking — widely contested for its environmental and health risks — had never been adopted. That limitation now appears to be wavering, following the authorities' approval of the first pilot project by oil giant Ecopetrol.

What is fracking, or hydraulic fracturing of rock

Fracking is a technique used to extract shale oil and shale gas — hydrocarbons contained within clayey rock formations underground that tend to fracture more easily. In Italian it is referred to as hydraulic fracturing of rock, because the ground is drilled down to the deposits, after which a high-pressure jet of water mixed with sand and chemicals is injected to bring the gas to the surface.

The United States in particular has placed great emphasis on this extraction method since the early 2000s, presenting it as a driver of economic development; in practice, the employment benefits have been far more limited than expected (26,000 jobs created in Pennsylvania, against the 940,000 projected by former president Donald Trump) and, conversely, there has been no shortage of studies on the possible environmental and health consequences arising from groundwater contamination. Operations also risk triggering minor seismic tremors.

Colombian authorities open the door to fracking

Despite these concerns, which have been extensively investigated by the international scientific community, Colombia's national environmental licensing authority (Anla) has given the green light to the first fracking site in Colombia's history. It is the work of Ecopetrol, the state-controlled oil company; it is called the Kalé project and is located in Puerto Wilches, in the department of Santander, in the north-eastern part of the country. A platform and a drilling well will be installed there.

Gustavo Petro ✓ @petrogustavo

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El fracking es el mecanismo más depredador pues acaba con el agua del territorio, para continuar un sistema económico basado en hidrocarburos.

Puerto Wilches tiene mucho mejor futuro en la agroindustria de pequeños y medianos productores agrarios

elespectador.com/ambiente/anla-…

♥ 5263💬 379 28 mar 2022 · Apri su X →

For now, a positive environmental assessment has been issued only for the pilot project, not for its commercial exploitation; a dedicated commission will decide whether to proceed in that direction. At present, it is in fact prohibited in Colombia to produce and sell energy derived from unconventional deposits; the country's highest administrative justice body (the equivalent of Italy's Tar) is nonetheless considering the matter and, in the meantime, is allowing similar pilot projects to go ahead.

The anger of environmentalists in Colombia

The problem is that the Puerto Wilches area is "among the most biodiverse in Colombia, one of the zones that contains the most water, wildlife and green spaces. And one of those with the greatest presence of armed militias," Yuvelis Natalia Morales explains to Climate change news. The 21-year-old activist has joined the Alliance to Keep Colombia Free from Fracking and founded the Aguawil committee, made up exclusively of young people aged between 18 and 25.

Rebelión o Extinción Colombia @Xrcolombiaaa

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Colombia🇨🇴 niega abiertamente el Fracking en el país, insistir es cegar la vida.

Desconocemos esta decisión y hacemos un llamado a la sociedad en general de rechazar en coro #NoAlFrackingEnColombia #NoAlFracking

Respeten a existencia o esperen resistencia✊

♥ 136💬 2 29 mar 2022 · Apri su X →

As soon as they began organising public debates and marches, the young activists received their first threats. They decided to press on and, in response, the threats became increasingly frequent, extending to their families as well. A gun was held to Morales's head. All of this in a country where 65 environmentalists were killed in 2020 — more than one a week.

Faced with this opening to fracking, activists have reacted with dismay and anger. Because the decision, they explain in a statement quoted by Reuters, was reached in less than five months "without the broad and informed participation of the communities of Puerto Wilches and Magdalena Medio, who for more than a century have paid the consequences of the social and environmental degradation associated with the conventional exploitation of hydrocarbons."