Colombia

Colombia in one paragraph

Colombia produced an average of 746,477 barrels per day (b/d) of crude in 2025, according to the field-by-field fiscalized production files of the Agencia Nacional de Hidrocarburos (ANH), and 731,185 b/d across January to August 2026 (ANH production statistics, checked October 2026). That is a plateau, not a growth story: output is about a quarter below the roughly 1 million b/d the country held from 2013 to 2015. Proved reserves at the end of 2025 stood at 2,020 million barrels, which the ANH expresses as 7.4 years of production. The crude is mostly heavy, mostly from the eastern plains, mostly lifted by Ecopetrol, and mostly exported. This page builds the picture from those two official datasets, ANH production and ANH reserves, plus the audited 2025 results of Ecopetrol, which are operator data and are labelled as such.

The production record, year by year

The ANH files list every producing field, its department, operator and contract, with a daily average for each month. Summing every field and weighting each month by its number of days gives the national annual averages below. The ANH notes that the figures are operator-declared, fiscalized volumes that may be revised, and that they do not net out field consumption or flaring.

Year	Fiscalized crude output (b/d)	Change on prior year
2013	1,008,747	n/a
2014	990,429	-1.8%
2015	1,005,605	+1.5%
2016	885,623	-11.9%
2017	854,040	-3.6%
2018	865,472	+1.3%
2019	885,829	+2.4%
2020	780,816	-11.9%
2021	736,356	-5.7%
2022	754,321	+2.4%
2023	777,151	+3.0%
2024	772,716	-0.6%
2025	746,477	-3.4%
2026 (Jan to Aug)	731,185	-2.0% vs 2025

Source: PetroEyes aggregation of ANH "Producción Fiscalizada Crudo" workbooks for 2013 to 2026, checked October 2026. Annual figures are day-weighted averages of the monthly national totals.

Two shocks stand out. The 2016 fall followed the 2014 to 2015 oil price collapse, when drilling budgets shrank and mature fields declined without replacement. The 2020 fall was the pandemic year: monthly output dropped from 883,915 b/d in January 2020 to 729,905 b/d in June. Unlike 2016, there was no rebound to the earlier level. Since 2021 the country has moved inside a narrow band between roughly 730,000 and 790,000 b/d, and the last month above 780,000 b/d in the ANH series was July 2024.

For context on what these volumes mean in barrels of a given quality, our explainer on what a barrel of oil is and how it is measured covers the unit conventions used here.

Where the oil comes from: a map that keeps shrinking toward Meta

Colombia's crude is produced in many departments, but the share coming from one of them has risen steadily. The table compares 2019 with 2025, using the same ANH field files.

Department	2019 (b/d)	2025 (b/d)	Change
Meta	447,234	430,493	-3.7%
Casanare	170,231	108,770	-36.1%
Arauca	55,953	46,029	-17.7%
Santander	59,651	41,854	-29.8%
Boyacá	32,010	26,474	-17.3%
Putumayo	28,842	19,459	-32.5%
Huila	23,584	17,495	-25.8%
Cesar	21,784	16,306	-25.1%

Meta held its volume almost flat while every other large department lost between a sixth and a third of its output. The result is concentration: Meta supplied 50.5 percent of national crude in 2019 and 57.7 percent in 2025, and its share in January to August 2026 was higher again at about 58 percent. Meta is home to the Rubiales, Castilla, Chichimene, Akacías and Caño Sur Este fields, most of them heavy-oil developments operated by Ecopetrol.

That concentration matters for anyone reading Colombian supply headlines. A blockade, a power failure or a pipeline outage in Meta now moves the national number more than an equivalent event anywhere else. Ecopetrol's 2025 results attribute part of that year's crude shortfall to "electrical events in Meta and Magdalena Medio" and to blockades early in the year, and say that blockades in block CPO-09 in Meta deferred about 364,000 barrels in the fourth quarter alone.

The largest fields

Field rankings from the same files show how few assets carry the country.

Field	2019 (b/d)	2025 (b/d)
Rubiales	119,309	94,380
Castilla	70,554	55,445
Caño Sur Este	not in 2019 top ten	50,752
Castilla Norte	43,276	39,666
Chichimene	48,972	38,121
Quifa	47,501	25,187
Akacías	not in 2019 top ten	24,697
Indico	not in 2019 top ten	21,101
Chichimene SW	20,119	20,365
La Cira	30,060	19,471

Rubiales, the largest field, produced about a fifth less in 2025 than in 2019. The main counterweight is Caño Sur Este, which the ANH files show rising from 31,910 b/d in 2023 to 50,752 b/d in 2025, and Akacías, which grew from 19,918 b/d to 24,697 b/d over the same two years. Ecopetrol's results credit the "growth of Caño Sur" and its purchase of Repsol's 45 percent of the CPO-09 contract with adding 24.8 thousand barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2025.

Who operates the barrels

The ANH files name the operator of each field. In 2025, fields operated by Ecopetrol S.A. produced 466,848 b/d, or 62.5 percent of national fiscalized crude. The next operators were Frontera Energy (48,943 b/d), GeoPark (42,734 b/d), SierraCol Energy Arauca (40,682 b/d), Gran Tierra (22,773 b/d), ONGC Videsh (21,615 b/d), Hocol (18,143 b/d, an Ecopetrol subsidiary) and Parex (13,746 b/d). Operated volume is not the same as net ownership: partners hold working interests, and the state takes royalties. But the operator list shows that one state-controlled company runs most of the country's oil production directly.

In its audited 2025 results, Ecopetrol reports group crude production of 581.4 thousand b/d, of which Ecopetrol S.A. produced 495.8 thousand b/d, Hocol 21.5 thousand, Ecopetrol America 8.3 thousand and Ecopetrol Permian 55.9 thousand (Ecopetrol 4Q25 and full-year 2025 report, operator data, checked October 2026). The company describes its domestic crude output of 517 thousand b/d as the highest in five years. Those are gross figures including royalties and prorated by Ecopetrol's holding in each company, so they do not reconcile exactly with the ANH field totals. Ecopetrol's U.S. Permian production comes from a joint development with Occidental in the Midland sub-basin; readers following that basin can compare it with our Permian Basin production outlook.

Reserves: a short life that refuses to get shorter

Colombia's defining number is its reserve life. The ANH's historical reserves table, which runs from 2007 to 2025, shows proved (1P) oil reserves and the ratio of reserves to the year's production (ANH Histórico de Reservas 2007 to 2025, checked October 2026).

Year end	Proved oil reserves (million bbl)	Production in year (million bbl)	Reserve replacement	R/P (years)
2013	2,445	368	118%	6.6
2015	2,002	367	17%	5.5
2016	1,665	324	-4%	5.1
2019	2,041	323	126%	6.3
2021	2,039	269	183%	7.6
2023	2,020	284	81%	7.1
2024	2,035	283	105%	7.2
2025	2,020	272	94%	7.4

The reserve life has sat between about 5 and 8 years for the whole series. That is short by global standards, and it is the reason Colombian supply forecasts tend to carry a decline warning. Yet the ratio has not collapsed. Each year operators book new reserves, mostly through revisions to existing fields rather than discoveries. In 2025, total incorporations were 257 million barrels, of which only 4 million came from new discoveries and 253 million from revisions. The ANH's press release on the 2025 report says that from 2018 to 2025 the country incorporated 2,054 million barrels against 1,992 million barrels produced, and that enhanced recovery and incremental production projects accounted for 436 million barrels, or 22 percent, of those additions (ANH IRR 2025 press release, June 23, 2026, checked October 2026).

Worked example: what 7.4 years actually means

The R/P ratio is simple arithmetic: 2,020 million barrels divided by 272 million barrels produced in 2025 equals 7.43 years. It is not a forecast of when Colombia runs dry, for two reasons that the data above make visible.

1. Reserves are replenished. If the 2018 to 2025 pattern held, with incorporations close to 100 percent of production, the ratio would stay roughly where it is. A replacement rate of 94 percent, as in 2025, shortens the life by only a few weeks a year.
2. Production is not constant. If output stayed at the January to August 2026 average of 731,185 b/d, annual production would be about 267 million barrels, and the same 2,020 million barrels would represent about 7.6 years.

The risk the ratio does capture is dependence on revisions. With discoveries contributing almost nothing in recent years, reserves rest on recovery-factor gains in mature fields, which in turn depend on oil prices: the ANH evaluated 2025 reserves at a reference Brent price of USD 69.38 per barrel, and a lower reference price shrinks what counts as economic.

Ecopetrol's own reserve statement points the same way. The company reports group proved reserves of 1,944 million barrels of oil equivalent at the end of 2025, with a 121 percent replacement ratio and a 7.8-year average life, and says enhanced recovery added 143 million barrels of oil equivalent, mostly from water injection in Castilla, Chichimene, Yariguí, La Cira, Palogrande and Acacías. It also attributes about 100 million barrels of oil equivalent to a 2025 resolution under which royalties on six large fields are collected in cash rather than in kind. That is an accounting effect on Ecopetrol's net entitlement, not new oil in the ground, and it is a good example of why company reserve figures and national reserve figures should not be mixed.

Natural gas: the number that changed policy

Colombia's gas reserves have fallen faster than its oil reserves. ANH data show proved gas reserves of 5,727 billion cubic feet (Gpc in the Spanish tables) at the end of 2012 and 1,717 billion cubic feet at the end of 2025, a decline of about 70 percent. In 2025 alone reserves fell 17 percent, revisions were negative, and the reserve life was 5.9 years. Commercialized production in 2025 was 290 billion cubic feet, down from 392 billion in 2022.

The consequence is an import build-out. Ecopetrol's 2025 report says the group expanded potential import capacity to more than 800 billion British thermal units per day (GBTUD) across options in Buenaventura, Coveñas and Puerto Bahía, and that its pipeline subsidiary Cenit is developing a program to bring up to 400 million standard cubic feet per day through a floating storage and regasification unit at Coveñas, with a planned start in 2029. On the supply side, Ecopetrol and Petrobras sold forward up to 249 million cubic feet per day from the offshore Sirius discovery, with first gas expected around 2030. The ANH counts 10,540 billion cubic feet of contingent gas resources in the 3C category, concentrated offshore in the Caribbean, but contingent resources are not reserves until development decisions are made.

Pipelines, security and the Venezuelan detour

Most Colombian crude must travel hundreds of kilometres from the eastern plains across or around the Andes to the Caribbean port of Coveñas. Ecopetrol's transport segment moved 804.1 thousand b/d of crude and 298.3 thousand b/d of refined products in 2025, and says 90.6 percent of the crude it moved belonged to the group.

Security remains an operating variable, not a historical footnote. Ecopetrol reports 31 third-party attacks on transport infrastructure in 2025, down from 41 in 2024, and a 17 percent rise in illicit valve tapping. The Banadía to Ayacucho segment of the Caño Limón to Coveñas pipeline has been suspended since the third quarter of 2024. To keep Arauca's production moving, about 15.2 million barrels were routed in 2025 through the Banadía to Araguaney route, which crosses into Venezuela, compared with about 7 million barrels in 2024, although that alternate route itself was suspended for 97 days during the year. The company estimates these disruptions limited production and transport by about 4 thousand b/d over the year.

Refining: two plants, more throughput, still imports

Colombia has two main refineries, both owned by the Ecopetrol Group. The 2025 operating data:

Refinery	2025 throughput (thousand b/d)	Utilization factor	Gross margin (USD/bbl)
Barrancabermeja	224.5	76.5%	14.1
Cartagena (Reficar)	192.6	82.2%	11.9
Group total	417.1	n/a	n/a

Source: Ecopetrol 2025 results, tables 13 and 14, operator data, checked October 2026.

Barrancabermeja set a quarterly record of 242.2 thousand b/d in the fourth quarter of 2025, helped by light imported crude delivered through the newly reversed Coveñas to Ayacucho line. That detail explains an apparent paradox: a crude exporter importing crude. The group imported 59.8 thousand b/d of crude in 2025, up 30.6 percent, plus 31.1 thousand b/d of diluent and 78.0 thousand b/d of refined products. Heavy Colombian crude needs lighter crude or naphtha to be blended for pipelines and for some refinery units, and imported light barrels can be worth more in the refinery than domestic heavy ones. For how refiners judge that trade-off, see our guide to refinery crack spreads.

Exports: who buys Colombian crude

Ecopetrol Group exported 429.1 thousand b/d of crude in 2025. The company's destination table shows a market that has tilted toward Asia:

Destination	2025 (thousand b/d)	Share
Asia	213.3	49.7%
U.S. Gulf Coast	166.8	38.9%
Europe	18.5	4.3%
U.S. West Coast	12.3	2.9%
U.S. East Coast	11.9	2.8%
Central America and Caribbean	4.2	1.0%
Others	2.1	0.5%

In the fourth quarter of 2025, Asia's share rose to 64.3 percent while the U.S. Gulf Coast fell to 31.7 percent. These figures cover the Ecopetrol Group only, not every exporter in the country, so they describe the dominant seller rather than national customs data. U.S. readers can cross-check the American side of the trade in our guide to U.S. oil imports by country.

Worked example: the heavy-crude discount in dollars

Ecopetrol's crude basket averaged USD 63.6 per barrel in 2025 against a Brent average of USD 68.2, a discount of USD 4.6, which the company calls its best differential in four years. Add the cost of making heavy crude movable: dilution cost averaged USD 4.59 per barrel sold, and transport cost averaged USD 3.41 per barrel moved. On those company figures, a barrel of Colombian heavy crude starts roughly USD 12 to 13 behind Brent before lifting cost, which averaged USD 12.20 per barrel, and before royalties and taxes. The exact sum depends on which barrels pay which costs, so treat it as an order of magnitude, but it explains why Colombian supply responds quickly when Brent falls: a USD 10 drop in Brent removes a much larger share of a heavy-crude producer's margin than of a light-crude producer's. Our explainer on the WTI and Brent spread covers how benchmark differentials work more broadly.

Fiscal take and the state's stake

Royalties are the most visible channel from oil to public finances. The ANH says that between August 2022 and December 2025 the country collected 29.6 trillion pesos in royalties, and that the proved reserves booked at the end of 2025 imply about 36 trillion pesos of future royalties. Ecopetrol, majority-owned by the state through the Ministry of Finance, reports total contributions to the nation of 34.6 trillion pesos in 2025 through dividends, taxes and royalties. Ecopetrol also faces a dispute with the tax authority DIAN over value-added tax on imported gasoline and diesel: the company discloses assessments of 9.45 trillion pesos against Ecopetrol and 1.96 trillion pesos against the Cartagena refinery, which both entities are contesting.

Known gaps in Colombia's record

• Fiscalized versus sold. ANH volumes are measured at the field and include oil later consumed or lost. Export and refinery figures are downstream, so they will never sum to the field total.
• Operator versus owner. A field operated by Ecopetrol may be shared with partners, and Ecopetrol's reported production is prorated by ownership and includes royalties. Do not compare the 62.5 percent operated share with Ecopetrol's net production without adjusting.
• Revisions. The ANH warns that its monthly files can be corrected. The 2023 production figure in its reserves table was itself adjusted after publication.
• Partial years. The 2026 figure here covers January to August. Seasonal effects in Colombia are small, but outages cluster in particular months, so a partial-year average can differ from the eventual full-year number.
• Oil equivalent. Ecopetrol reports some totals in barrels of oil equivalent, which mix gas and liquids. The tables on this page separate crude where the source allows.

Frequently asked questions

How much oil does Colombia produce?

ANH field data put fiscalized crude production at 746,477 b/d in 2025 and 731,185 b/d on average from January to August 2026, checked October 2026. The country produced about 1 million b/d in 2013 to 2015.

How many years of oil reserves does Colombia have?

At the end of 2025, proved reserves were 2,020 million barrels, equal to 7.4 years of 2025 production according to the ANH. The ratio has stayed between about 5 and 8 years since 2007 because annual reserve additions, mostly revisions of existing fields, have roughly matched production.

Is Colombia an OPEC member?

No. Colombia is not a member of OPEC or of the wider OPEC+ group, so its output is not subject to group quotas. For how those quotas work for members, see our OPEC+ explainer.

Why does Colombia import crude oil if it exports so much?

Most Colombian crude is heavy. Ecopetrol imported 59.8 thousand b/d of mostly light crude in 2025, plus diluent, to blend heavy barrels for pipelines and to get more out of refinery runs, while exporting 429.1 thousand b/d of its own crude.

Where does Colombian crude go?

For the Ecopetrol Group in 2025, about half of crude exports went to Asia and about 39 percent to the U.S. Gulf Coast, with smaller volumes to Europe and other U.S. coasts.

Why is Colombia worried about natural gas?

Proved gas reserves fell to 1,717 billion cubic feet at the end of 2025, a 5.9-year life, after a 70 percent decline since 2012. New offshore supply such as Sirius is not expected before about 2030, so the gap is being planned around imported LNG.

Sources

• Agencia Nacional de Hidrocarburos (ANH), Producción Fiscalizada de Crudo workbooks 2013 to 2026, production statistics page, checked October 2026. National, department, field and operator averages on this page are PetroEyes aggregations of these files.
• ANH, Histórico de Reservas 2007 to 2025 and IRR 2025 press release, June 23, 2026, checked October 2026. Reference price from the ANH reserves module.
• Ecopetrol S.A., Fourth quarter and full-year 2025 results, operator data, checked October 2026.

This page is educational market research, not investment advice.