Canada’s Frontera Energy has suspended operations at its Cubiro oil field in northeastern Colombia after threats and attacks against workers, the company said Feb. 5.
Protests, attacks by National Liberation Army (ELN) rebels and community and judicial efforts to ban extractive industries are widely considered the top threats to Colombia’s oil industry.
The Cubiro Field, located in Casanare province, produces 3,600 barrels per day (bbl/d). Average daily output in the Andean country fell 3.59% year-on-year in 2017 to 854,121 bbl/d, largely because of attacks and operational challenges at some fields.
“Unfortunately excessive demands by a minority group of people in San Luis de Palenque, a group that does not represent the municipality’s leaders or the community, have forced the company to make this decision,” Frontera said in an emailed statement, adding some workers had been injured. The company did not provide details about how or when the workers were hurt.
The Cubiro Field employs 163 workers, the statement added, and has produced $30 million in royalties for the government since 2015. Frontera is willing to negotiate a re-opening of the field, it said, but not while workers are under threat.
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