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The House and Senate committees in charge of reconciling the text of the royalties law sank on Monday the controversial article 210, with which the Government sought that the exemptions contemplated in law 1530 of 2012 continue to shelter the initiatives already approved to exploit deposits non-conventional, and will also benefit the eventual production of the blocks in which pilot projects approved under Law 1955 of 2019 are developed.
According to the aforementioned 2012 law, a royalty of 60 percent (and not 100, as is the case with conventional crude) is applied to the exploitation of hydrocarbons from unconventional fields (methane gas associated with coal, shale gas and oil or oil from shales, tar sands, methane hydrates, and tight sands). It should be noted that fracking is one of the most used techniques to access this type of deposit.
(Also read: Article that gave incentives to ‘fracking’ in Colombia falls)
After conciliation, that article will no longer be part of the royalty lawTherefore, all hydrocarbon exploitation will pay the same rate, regardless of the type of reservoir in which they are located or the technique used to extract them. By virtue of this decision, the sanction of the royalty law would repeal a good part of law 1530 of 2012.
It is important to clarify that what was discussed this Monday has nothing to do with the legality of fracking in Colombiaa, matter on which the Council of State must decide. Meanwhile, the 1955 law of last year is still in force, which regulates the pilots of this technique.
BERNARDO BEJARANO AND OMAR SMOKED
TIME
