Ministry of Mines revokes fuel alcohol resolution due to lack of jurisdiction

The Ministry of Mines and Energy revoked in its entirety Resolution 40429 of August 6, 2026, which established the mechanism to measure the national deficit of fuel alcohol and enable contingent imports of ethanol. The measure was adopted through Resolution 40503 of September 21, 2026, signed by Minister María Nohemí Arboleda Arango and published in Official Gazette number 53,636 on September 23, 2026. The central argument is the lack of competence: the revoked act was signed by former minister Edwin Palma Egea on the same day that Decree 1117 of 2026 accepted his resignation.

Resolution 40429 of August 6, 2026 established a mechanism to determine the deficit in the national supply of denatured anhydrous ethanol (fuel alcohol), in order to authorize the contingent imports necessary to cover internal supply and comply with the blending percentages for regular and premium motor gasoline currently in effect in the different regions of the country served under the gasoline oxygenation program.

The framework of competence is set by Law 693 of 2001, which assigns the Ministry of Mines and Energy the technical regulation of the production, collection, distribution, and blending points of fuel alcohols, and Decree 381 of 2012, whose article 2, numerals 2 and 32, entrusts it with the hydrocarbons and biofuels policy and the management to ensure the continuity of fuel supply.

The flaw of competence

According to the resolution, Decree 1117 of August 6, 2026 arranged to accept, as of that date, the resignation of Edwin Palma Egea from the position of Minister of Mines and Energy and to appoint Julián Flórez Quiroga, then Technical Director Code 100 Grade 21 of the Hydrocarbons Directorate, as acting minister. After reviewing both acts, the Ministry concluded that Resolution 40429 was issued and signed by someone who no longer held the title of the office.

The revocation is based on numeral 1 of article 93 of Law 1437 of 2011, which allows for the removal from the legal order of acts that are manifestly opposed to the Constitution or the law. The resolution invokes jurisprudence from the Council of State—Judgment of August 16, 2012, file 24,643, and filing 17001-23-33-000-2017-00100-02 (4103-18) of September 3, 2020—and from the Constitutional Court (Judgment C-742 of 1999) regarding the incurable nature of incompetence.

What is rendered null and void

• The mechanism to measure the deficit in the national supply of fuel alcohol.
• The authorization for contingent imports of ethanol for internal supply.
• The support for compliance with the blending percentages for regular and premium motor gasoline.
• The scheme applicable to the gasoline oxygenation program in the different regions of the country.

Validity of the act

Article 2 of Resolution 40503 of 2026 establishes that it shall take effect as of the day following its publication in the Official Gazette. The act was issued in Bogotá, D.C., on September 21, 2026, and bears the signature of Minister María Nohemí Arboleda Arango.

With the revocation, the Ministry of Mines and Energy is left without the mechanism it had established to quantify the ethanol deficit and support the contingent imports that back the gasoline blend in the country. Any new measurement of the deficit must be issued through a final administrative act signed by a competent authority, which leaves the current procedure suspended until a new regulation is adopted.

Source: Official Gazette, Edition 53,636 of September 23, 2026, Section I (Ministry of Mines and Energy), p. 14 (official reference: Resolution 40503 of 2026).