With two new terminals planned, Colombia's state oil company plans to bring in supplies to offset an internal deficit.

Ecopetrol plans to offset Colombia's declining natural gas reserves by developing two facilities that will allow it to import the fuel starting next year, its president, Ricardo Roa, said in an interview.

With the planned terminals, the state-owned company plans to bring in supplies to compensate for an internal deficit. New wells in Colombian Caribbean waters that will increase national supply are expected to begin producing the fuel as early as 2029.

"We will have long-term contracts of five or more years to bring in those gas molecules, which makes all the difference" compared to current contracts that are for just a few months, Roa said. That will mean imported gas can be sold at "much lower prices" than now.

The country’s president, Gustavo Petro, has refused to grant new exploration licenses to move away from fossil fuels. To tide over households and industries until offshore gas becomes available for use, private companies began importing liquefied natural gas late last year through Colombia’s only regasification facility.

The two new import facilities will cover up to 26% of the country's gas demand. The largest of these, located on Ecopetrol's Chuchupa platform off the coast of northern Colombia, will have a capacity of 200 million cubic feet per day and is expected to be ready in the second half of 2026.

The second, with a capacity of 60 million cubic feet, will be located in Buenaventura, on the Colombian Pacific coast, and the LNG will be transported by special vehicles to a regasification facility near Cali.

The company announced Thursday that its natural gas reserves fell to the equivalent of 6.7 years last year, down from 7.2 years in 2023. Meanwhile, its oil reserves rose to 7.8 years from 7.7 years in the same period.