On the first semester of 2019, the Independent Interdisciplinary Expert Commission commissioned by the National Government concluded that in Colombia it is possible to carry out Integral Research Pilot Projects (“PPII” from its acronyms in Spanish) through the horizontal drilling and hydraulic rock fractures technique (better known as “Fracking”), provided that some requirements are met. Accordingly, the Expert Commission published a full report, which contains the main conclusions and recommendations that the National Government must consider when implementing PPII related to unconventional deposits using Fracking.

In that sense, on February 29, 2020, the Ministry of Mines and Energy (“MME”) published Decree 328 of 2020 “By means of which the guidelines for the exploration activities in PPII on unconventional hydrocarbon in a multi-stage horizontal drilling and hydraulic rock fractures technique are established FH-PH and other provisions.”

Considering this context, based on the decree published by the MME and in compliance with the article 8 of the Colombian Administrative Procedure Code (related to the obligation of the authorities to maintain available to all interested parties the complete and updated information, among others, of the specific regulatory projects and the information used to build them, in order to receive opinions, suggestions or alternative proposals), the National Hydrocarbons Agency (“ANH”) published the draft agreement “By which Agreement 2 of 2017 is amended in order to incorporate the rules that allow carrying out Research Projects in development of Integral Research Pilot Projects on unconventional deposits -YNC of hydrocarbons through the horizontal drilling and hydraulic rock fractures technique –FH-PH” (the“ Draft Agreement”).

The Draft Agreement and other relevant information about it, can be found in the following link: http://www.anh.gov.co/transparencia/normatividad

Until Wednesday July 1, 2020, the ANH will receive the observations, comments and proposals to the Draft Agreement through the following email:  comentariosnormativa@anh.gov.co

It is important to bear in mind that such observations, comments, and proposals shall be submitted in the editable form for the reception of comments, which is available on the ANH website, where the Draft Agreement is also published.