Claudia Lopez responds to Benedetti about buying gas from Venezuela

In recent days, Colombians have heard many reports about the idea of ​​buying gas from the neighboring country, which has generated all kinds of opinions in the political and social spheres.

In an effort to restore relations with Venezuela for this and other purposes, there is Ambassador Armando Benedetti, who made some clarifications today, saying that “judicial cooperation between Venezuela and Colombia has already been implemented” before the assistance requested by the mayor. Claudia Lopez fights organized crime in the capital and punishes members of criminal organizations.

Likewise, Benedetti, through his official Twitter account, clarified the issue of buying gas from Venezuela and named some of the companies that could be part of the deal, promising that they would be “public and private” companies.

“For the skeptics, Let me inform you that the gas issue will be solved by public companies and not by private companies. Only two can: Ecopetrol and TGI (of which Bogotá has the majority), and fixing the infrastructure and the operation of the fields, rather than buying,” he pointed out.

Given this precedent, López did not hesitate to confirm with the ambassador which organizations could cooperate in the capital and how they would participate in a hypothetical negotiation with Venezuela.

“Always count on @Bogota and its public business entity @GrupoEnergiaBog @TGISAESP to contribute whatever the governments deem appropriate and bilaterally convenient,” the mayor noted.

He did not hesitate to point out that more than a million Colombians do not have access to gas to cook, and must cook with wood.

“A fact: 1 million six hundred thousand Colombians still cook with wood! Together we can get through it!” He argued that.

According to the aforementioned statement, Monica Contreras, President International Gas Carrier (TGI) –Bogotá Energy Group– Today, in the framework of the ANTECO conference in Cartagena, he said:

“Today 36 million Colombians benefit from natural gas. About 30% of the country’s demand for this is concentrated in industries, and this sector plays an important role,” he pointed out.

“It’s ridiculous”: Oil union reacts to plan to buy and store gas from Venezuela

According to the ambassador, it is necessary to import from Venezuela Colombia will run out of gas in the next seven years. He thinks that these purchases should start “now” because “you have to plan to save, seven years is nothing”.

Based on these reports, the President of the Colombian Petroleum Association (ACP), Francisco José Loreda, accepted Ambassador Benedetti’s proposal to now import and store gas from Venezuela. “It is absurd and against the national interest”.

The union leader argued Natural gas is very expensive to store in its gaseous state. For this reason, the hydrocarbon is used immediately, burned in the field in the operations of the same companies or exported in special containers liquefied (its temperature drops to -260 ° C).

In addition, he pointed out that natural gas production in Colombia creates jobs, income from royalties, taxes and the purchase of goods and services in the country, contributing to the dynamism of regional economies. “Therefore, while natural gas is being produced, it does not make sense to depend on imported gas,” Francisco Jose Loreda said.

According to the Ministry of Mines and Energy, Between January 2021 and July 2022, $16.8 billion in royalties were collected.It is money paid by companies for the production of hydrocarbons and minerals (such as coal and gold) in Colombia and is given to municipalities and departments.