Colombia rules out resuming electricity exports to Ecuador for now

Colombia will only resume energy exports to crisis-stricken Ecuador when and if its own supply concerns ease, according to energy minister Andrés Camacho. 

Ecuadorans have endured daily electricity outages of up to 14 hours amid a prolonged drought that has severely limited power generation from hydroelectric plants. 

Camacho confirmed that his Ecuadoran counterpart Inés Manzano had requested support from Colombia during the COP16 biodiversity summit in Cali.

"We ratify our commitment to energy exchange, as long as conditions [in Colombia] improve," Camacho said on social media network X. 

The Colombian and Ecuadoran power grids are connected by a dual-circuit 230kV transmission line spanning 212km. In 2020, Colombia updated regulations related to the interconnection in an effort to increase flexibility, improve supervision and encourage greater trade volumes.

But Colombia halted electricity exports to its southern neighbor in August to guarantee domestic supply after hydroelectric reservoir levels hit record lows.

"We are aware of the hard circumstances that our Ecuadoran brothers are going through and that integration and collaboration is necessary," Camacho added.

In related news, Colombian state-owned oil company Ecopetrol announced that Colombia would no longer need additional gas imports in 2025. 

CEO Ricardo Roa explained that fears of an imminent gas shortfall had been eased by measures such as consumption optimization, the re-allocation of supply to meet "urgent demand" and efforts to ramp up production. 

“We had anticipated a need for 121BBTU/d [billion British thermal units per day] next year but with our current infrastructure, demand, and production capacity, there will be no need for additional imports,” Roa told reporters.

He added that imports of liquefied natural gas via the SPEC regasification plan in Cartagena would continue to meet demand from thermoelectric generators next year.