Colombia hopes to launch its first-ever tender to license offshore wind blocks in December, Minister of Mines and Energy Andres Camacho said on Tuesday, adding that the ministry was analyzing more than 50 comments on a draft of the rules.
In July, the ministry - then led by ex-Minister Irene Velez - said in a statement that tender documents for the bidding round would be ready in August. In September, however, the ministry delayed the process, saying it was working on finalizing the tender document.
"We hope in December to be able to launch the tender and the process of assigning areas," Camacho told journalists on the sidelines of an industry forum in Cartagena organized by the private Colombian Petroleum Association (ACP).
The government of President Gustavo Petro, Colombia's first leftist leader, has set its sights on weaning the country away from its dependency on hydrocarbons, in favor of renewable energy sources.
Earlier in October, the ministry published a set of draft modifications to rules governing the process of awarding offshore wind blocks, which included rules that would force bidders to give an unspecified state company a stake in the developments.
In September, three sources told Reuters that Colombia's government was looking to make majority state-run oil company Ecopetrol ECO.CN an obligatory partner for all offshore wind projects, without specifying how big any stake might be.
While the government has not offered new oil and gas blocks, it is working to help oil and gas companies develop existing projects, Camacho said.
Of some 25 suspended contracts, the government has managed to reactivate six of them, Camacho said.
(Reporting by Oliver Griffin/Editing by Marguerita Choy)
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