President Petro says that Ecopetrol stopped the gas purchase because its current head got scared and Roa didn’t do it either in the 3 days they put him in charge

In the last cabinet meeting, on Thursday, July 30, President Gustavo Petro referred to the importation of gas by Ecopetrol, which both he and the state company announced as part of the measures to ward off the threat of a blackout. 

“We do not have enough gas for the coming years and there was a need to import (…) There will be gas, yes, but a bit more expensive,” Roa said in his Thursday report. But contrary to what was expected, the president assured that the issue was halted. 

And the outgoing president blamed the matter on the acting president of Ecopetrol, Juan Carlos Hurtado Parra, and even Roa, who would be preparing his cooperation with the Prosecutor’s Office in the case of the violation of limits in the 2022-2026 presidential campaign.   

(Check here all the articles from EL TIEMPO’s Investigative Unit) 

“I just received the report about that same struggle to remove the president so that he is not from Petro and that only Abelardo’s people enter, well, he no longer approved the start of gas importation. Okay, they won. We are not the ones who did it. But what they tell me is that it will take a month. And if it takes a month to approve, not to bring it, because that has other international circumstances for a gas shipment to arrive here,” the visibly upset president said. 

And he added: “And if it arrives here in January next year, then what’s the point. And already at Ecopetrol, what I had warned about, happened under Hurtado’s management. Hurtado got scared, they put Roa in for three days, and Roa didn’t do it either. And in just a month, the bidding opens again, it opened again and that takes a month.”

Informed sources told EL TIEMPO that at Ecopetrol they assured that for a week, there was no difference in the procedures and doubts about the last-minute multimillion-dollar deal were indeed cleared.  

INVESTIGATIVE UNIT

u.investigativa@eltiempo.com

@UinvestigativaET

Follow us now on Facebook