In November 2010, the Colombian National Hydrocarbons Agency (ANH) granted the Colombian Petroleum Company (Ecopetrol) and the companies Repsol (Spain) and YPF (Argentina) a license to explore and exploit potential sources of gas in two areas of the San Andres Archipelago, Providencia and Santa Catalina. Located in the south-western Caribbean, off the coast of Nicaragua, those islands shelter an important coral ecosystem for the region and were declared by Unesco since 2002 as a Seaflower biosphere reserve (the world’s largest network of biosphere reserves on the planet).
The expected environmental impacts of such a project are diverse and start with the exploratory phase during which several wells must be drilled in order to determine its cost-effectiveness. In most cases, the probability of finding hydrocarbon is rather low (one of ten excavations only) and drilling will interfere with the natural resources of the seabed.
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