“This event forced the shutdown of this facility, thereby limiting the supply of 38 million cubic feet of gas per day that supplies the municipalities of Santander, Norte de Santander and the Barrancabermeja refinery,” Ecopetrol said, for which it blamed members of the Social Popular Mass political movement of Central-East Colombia about the seizure of objects.

Ernesto Roa, part of the group that seized the plant, said social groups were seeking to draw attention to the humanitarian challenges facing communities in the neighboring Arauca department and protesting the government’s failure to honor earlier agreements.

“Since several mobilization exercises have been conducted, agreements have been signed, but to date they have not been implemented or materialized,” he said.

Ecopetrol is the largest company in Colombia, producing most of the South American country’s oil production and owning two major refineries and most of the oil and polyproduct network. (Reuters).