This report examines the economic and wider risks of continued oil and gas expansion in the Colombian Amazon, a region of immense ecological and cultural significance. 

Some of the report’s key findings include:

• Approximately 14 Mha of the Colombian Amazon, nearly a third of the region, is overlapped by oil and gas blocks, including 20% of the intact Amazon forest.
• Almost 70% of the IPs, LCs, and ADs communities in the Colombian Amazon are threatened by oil and gas blocks, which directly overlap with 15% of their recognized and documented territories in the Colombian Amazon.
• If all announced climate pledges are implemented, almost two-thirds of blocks could be economically unviable, creating significant economic risk. Under a 1.5°C scenario, 97% of new blocks in the Colombian Amazon could be unprofitable.
• Nearly 43% of unprotected Key Biodiversity Areas (KBA’s) recognized by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature in the Colombian Amazon are still threatened by oil and gas activity or expansion.
• Further oil and gas expansion puts in danger a critical carbon sink: The Colombian Amazon contains approximately 9.6 billion metric tons of sequestered CO2 equivalent. Approximately 19% –roughly 10.7 times greater than Colombia’s 2030 climate target– could be disturbed by oil and gas expansion and subsequent industrial activities, which would threaten the sinks’ stability and endanger the Paris Agreement goals.

Colombia has rightly earned recognition as an international leader in climate and environmental policy, from championing global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) over a decade ago to successfully presiding over the 16th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in Cali, joining the Powering Past Coal Alliance (PPCA), the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance (BOGA), and endorsing the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty (FFNPT) in recent years. The current Colombian government has backed this up with a public commitment to end new oil and gas exploration licenses and with numerous efforts to reduce deforestation and protect critical ecosystems. Such efforts have also underscored the social, political and economic challenges of carrying out an accelerated ecological transition in an emerging economy (Darby, et al. 2024).

The Amazon region presents an unparalleled opportunity to consolidate Colombia’s international leadership. The Amazon forest spans a vast portion of Colombia’s national territory and is inhabited by hundreds of Indigenous Peoples and local communities that depend on it for their livelihoods and cultural practices. It is also home to 53,000 fauna and flora species, of which 20% are unique (Yngvil 2024), and functions as a crucial sink of greenhouse gases. Its unique cultural and ecological significance was upheld by the Supreme Court’s recognition of the Amazon as a subject of rights in 2018 (Eco Jurisprudence Monitor 2024).

Despite Colombia’s global leadership to halt new fossil fuel licenses and curb deforestation, a significant number of oil and gas blocks still threaten the Colombian Amazon. While most are unassigned to any investor, they pose a latent threat to people and nature. Fossil fuel extraction in the Amazon, ongoing since the early 1960s, has already accelerated deforestation, caused local pollution, and endangered Indigenous Peoples and local communities in several Amazonian departments, particularly Putumayo.

Expanding fossil fuel exploration in such ecologically and culturally sensitive areas is neither effective to meet domestic energy demand nor competitive in an increasingly volatile global energy market. A decisive move to permanently remove all unassigned blocks is a no-regret choice that would consolidate the government’s environmental legacy, reinforce Colombia’s international leadership, and position the country to attract investments into green growth sectors like renewables, eco-tourism and sustainable agriculture, supporting its $40 billion climate and nature investment plan (Darby et al. 2024). By making this choice, the Colombian government can also ensure the long-term health and sustainable development of the Amazon region and its communities.

Oil and Gas blocks cover more than a fourth of the Colombian Amazon

There are a total of 14 Mha (Mha) of oil and gas blocks in the Colombian Amazon covering 28% of the region, of which eight million hectares overlap with intact forest. Oil and gas production is already happening in blocks that cover 240,000 hectares, roughly 1.7% of the total overlap (colored red in Map 1 below). The extent of the Colombian Amazon affected by exploration blocks (colored pink in Map 1), is roughly 10 times greater, covering 2.5 Mha (18% of the total overlap).

The Oil and Gas Sector is a Threat to People and Nature in the Colombian Amazon

Indigenous Peoples and local communities are indispensable to the ecological integrity and preservation of intact Amazon forest areas. According to data from the National Organisation of Indigenous Peoples of the Colombian Amazon (OPIAC), at least 93% of Indigenous territories in the region were covered by natural forest in 2024, a greater proportion than the region’s average, reflecting IPs’ critical role in conserving the Amazon forest (OPIAC 2024). Across the Amazon Indigenous territories have lower deforestation rates and lower loss of intact forests due to a combination of cultural, political and economic factors (FAO and FILAC 2021, pp. 27-28). The preservation and continuation of their knowledge systems and livelihoods is an increasingly recognized pillar for the conservation of the Colombian Amazon (Dahl 2025).

Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) are threatened by oil and gas expansion

Under Petro’s presidency, Colombia has made important steps toward preserving Amazonian PAs from fossil fuel expansion. Approximately 800,000 ha of oil and gas blocks overlapping with PAs have been recently shelved, equivalent to roughly 7% of all protected lands in the Amazon (shown with white borders and stripes in Map 3). The ANH has now classified these as Áreas Reservadas Ambientales (Reserved Environmental Areas) where further fossil fuel-related activity is either prohibited or must follow strict environmental regulations (Agencia Nacional de Hidrocarburos 2017). Less than 10,000 ha of oil and gas blocks remain overlapping with recognized protected areas in the Colombian Amazon.

Unfortunately, PAs do not yet cover the breadth and depth of the Colombian Amazon’s biodiversity. There are nearly 7.5 Mha of Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs, colored purple without green stripes and orange in Map 3) in the Amazon region, of which one million, or just over 13%, are unprotected by any area-based conservation measures. Of these unprotected KBAs, 290,000 ha, or roughly 30%, are directly threatened by overlapping exploration and production blocks, while 140,000 ha, or 14%, are overlapped by unassigned blocks (all colored orange in Map 3). Over 46,000 ha of unprotected KBAs currently overlapped by oil and gas blocks are also within IPs, LCs, and ADs lands.

Expanding Drilling May Disrupt Irrecoverable Sinks of Greenhouse Gases

The Colombian Amazon stores 2.6 billion metric tons of irrecoverable carbon, or 9.6 billion metric tons of CO₂-eq, both below and above ground. These sinks are a genuine natural carbon bomb - they contain over 56 times more CO₂-eq than Colombia’s 2030 emissions target of 169.44 million tons (including Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry) (Climate Action Tracker 2022).

Irrecoverable carbon is unevenly distributed in the Amazon (as seen by the different shades of pink in Map 4). Approximately 19% of irrecoverable carbon in the Amazon is at risk of disturbance by oil and gas activities (as seen by the overlap of oil and gas blocks with darker pink areas in the inset maps in Map 4). Ongoing fossil fuel activities in these blocks are a threat to the stability of Colombia’s rich Amazon carbon sinks, as well as the country’s compliance with its UNFCCC Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC).

Permanently shelving all unassigned blocks would minimize future financial losses and diversify the region’s economy while consolidating Colombia’s leadership, helping attract international support to its transition.

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