Colombia offshore wind auction ends with a single bid
The Colombia offshore wind auction was its first competitive process for offshore wind maritime permits, letting companies bid for the right to build wind turbines in national waters. The Agencia Nacional de Hidrocarburos, the agency that normally licenses oil and gas exploration rather than the energy ministry, qualified 8 companies to compete in December 2024. Those 8 companies came from Belgium, the United Kingdom, Spain and China, alongside longstanding Colombian companies. When bids came due from 9 to 14 October 2025, only 1 of those 8 qualified companies actually submitted an offer, a project vehicle named CI GMF II Cooperatief U.A.
Companies that walked away is a subtraction of 1 from 8, the number the regulator qualified to compete, not a figure either source states directly.
Show the numbers
| Companies qualified | 8 |
| Companies that bid | 1 |
| Companies that walked away | 7 |
Finalmente, una gran compañía presentó su oferta. Eso demuestra que sí se pudo.
Orlando Velandia, President of the Agencia Nacional de Hidrocarburos. Source 4.
Speaking in Spanish, Velandia said a large company finally submitted its bid, which he said showed it could be done.
Why the area sits off Bolivar and Atlantico, not La Guajira
The choice of regulator matters. The Agencia Nacional de Hidrocarburos is not the energy ministry or the mining and energy planning unit that normally handles power projects. It is the agency that licenses oil and gas exploration, running a maritime permit process for wind turbines instead. The area on offer sits in the Caribbean Sea off the departments of Bolivar and Atlantico. Wind measurements dating back to 2008, read directly from the technical annex written by the maritime authority DIMAR and its own oceanographic research center, identify the strongest known wind resource in the whole country further north, off La Guajira, not where this round drew its boundary.
Remaining nomination area is a subtraction of 1203.126 square kilometers from 10664.974 square kilometers, not a figure source 3 states directly.
Show the numbers
| Total process area | 10664.974 |
| DIMAR proposed area | 1203.126 |
| Remaining nomination area | 9461.848 |
What the government targets against what the area could hold
The government set a national target of 3 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity in the Caribbean Sea by 2035. The regulator estimates that the whole area on offer could technically hold more than 50 gigawatts of installed capacity, more than 16 times that target, a comparison this article calculates by dividing the 2 figures since neither source states it directly. The gap between an ambitious technical ceiling and a modest near term target is itself part of the story, since only 1 project is moving toward construction so far.
Este es el inicio de la expansión de la transición energética hacia nuestros mares, posicionando a Colombia como un punto de referencia para Latinoamérica.
Andres Camacho, Minister of Mines and Energy. Source 5.
Speaking in Spanish, Camacho said the result marks the start of an energy transition into the seas of the country, calling Colombia a reference point for Latin America.
Permitting drags past its own deadline
The Agencia Nacional de Hidrocarburos communicated the award to CI GMF II Cooperatief U.A. from 17 to 23 December 2025. The rules require the winner to form a company or joint venture, then deliver financial guarantees to the maritime authority DIMAR, before DIMAR can issue the maritime occupation permit, the document that actually lets construction begin. The government first set 30 July 2026 as the deadline for that permit. On 6 July 2026 the winning bidder asked for more time to adjust its financial guarantees, and the government moved the deadline to 31 August 2026. That date has now passed, and none of the sources checked for this article confirm whether DIMAR actually issued the permit.