Minister of the Environment of Ecuador confirms that Colombia will not sell energy to her country

The Minister of Environment, Water and Energy Transition of Ecuador, Inés Manzano, confirmed on Noticias Caracol live that the Government of Colombia told her that it will not sell energy to her country.

“Unfortunately the minister (of Mines, Andrés Camacho) said that, although there is all the availability and political will on the part of the president of Colombia, they cannot sell to the 18 million Ecuadorians who need energyso we are looking at the private part,” explained the foreign official, who arrived in Cali to participate in COP16.

The minister of Ecuador said that her country is experiencing an “unprecedented drought” and the energy generation in her country is 76% with hydroelectric plants and the rest is with renewables and thermoelectric plants.

“What we are experiencing is between 10 to 14 hours of suspension of public service in Ecuador”, he detailed. Although they had predicted rationing for only 15 days, the rains have not yet reached the South American country. “In fact, I come here, on behalf of 18 million Ecuadorians, to work and have energy from the Colombian private sector,” he explained.

Minister Manzano said that she had two objectives with Colombia, to buy energy with the Government of Gustavo Petro or with the private sector.

He noted that this Monday, October 28 had a meeting with the Minister of Mines of Colombia, who “said no to him selling“But I told him that since October 18 he has the draft regulation from Ecuador to enable private purchase from Colombia.”

Now, the Ecuadorian delegate is “looking at the direct purchase from the Colombian private company, that they make us offers, which we have already had some, it is interesting because the Colombian energy market is completely different from the Ecuadorian one, here it is almost 100% private ”.

He highlighted that “Colombia and Ecuador have been strategic partners in energy issues and we have the appropriate connections. “Not much happens to us in the south with Peru, but we can do it, there is no prohibition on the part of Colombia and what we hope is to obtain these contracts.”

“We believe that with the declaration of the president of Colombia telling the entire world that we must help countries that have a water deficit, among them is Ecuador, we take that as good will and there is no ideological issue involved. It seems to me that if the minister in charge says that, although his reservoirs are full, he does not want or cannot sell us energy, we will go with the private issue.“added Minister Manzano.

For the official, What Camacho wants “is to protect his reservoirs for the dry season that is on the way and they are perfectly right”ruling out any binational conflict.

However, he acknowledged that he expected another response from the Colombian Government because “we are seeing that in a situation like the one we are in, with 14 hours of suspension, and seeing its reservoirs and the entry of rains, we would believe that it was possible. I must also respect the decision of Minister Camacho, who is giving me an explanation in which we chose to go to our second part. What I can rescue from this meeting is that he said that he was going to start making the regulation. I’m sorry that it took so long because we made it in five days, approved it and shared it with you more than ten days ago.”