Office of the Minister of Mines and Energy
Diego Mesa
Minister of Mines and Energy
Diego Mesa Puyo is Colombia's new Minister of Energy and Mining. The new Minister is a Globally-minded energy and extractive industries leader with over 15 years of experience in management and advisory roles in government, multilaterals and private sector. As Colombia`s Deputy Energy Minister between 2018 and 2020, he co-led the design and implementation of the country`s energy transformation policy, including increasing the share of variable renewable energy from 1% to 12% of the power generation matrix.
Before joining the Colombian government, he spent 6 years at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) where he led technical assistance missions to advise African, Asian, European, Latin American and Middle Eastern countries on fiscal issues for extractive industries. Prior to the IMF, he spent 4 years as a Manger and Senior Economist in the Consulting and Deals Practice of PriceWaterhouseCooper (PwC) in Canada. The new Minister holds an M.A. in Economics from McGill University and is a CFA®️ chart holder since 2012.
According to Decree 381 of 2012
Article 5. The duties of the Office of the Minister of Mines and Energy, established by the Political Constitution in Article 61 of Law 489 of 1998 and any other currently valid legal norms, are the following:
- Adopt the policy concerning mining, electrical energy, nuclear energy, radioactive materials, alternate energy sources, hydrocarbons and biofuels.
- Coordinate the implementation of sector policy by the entities that are attached and affiliated to the mining and energy sector.
- Approve the plans, programs and projects for the development of the mining and energy sector of the country, acting according to the national development plans and the policy of the National Government.
- Issue sector regulations for exploration, extraction, transportation, refining, distribution, processing, benefit, commercialization and export of non-renewable natural resources and biofuels.
- Define prices and rates for gasoline, diesel fuel (ACPM), biofuels and any mixtures of the above.
- Direct the process for issuing energy regulations.
- Issue the technical regulations on production, transportation, distribution and commercialization of electricity and fuel gas, their uses and applications.
- Adopt the general expansion plans for energy generation and for the interconnection network as well as establish criteria for the planning of transmission and distribution.
- Adopt expansion plans for the public utility services of electricity.
- Establish exclusive service areas to provide public utility services for the distribution of domestic electricity and fuel gas through the network as well as entering into contracts with the bidders selected for rendering services in said areas.
- Adopt the policies for the Solidarity Fund and the Subsidies for Income Redistribution (FSSRI), according to currently valid provisions.
- Acknowledge and order the payment of compensations for the transportation of liquid petroleum derivatives to wholesale fuel and liquefied gas distributors, consistent with what has been established by paragraph 1 of article 9 of Law 1118 of 2006.
- Participate in the administration committees that allocate the resources from the Funds managed by the Ministry.
- Direct the duties of supervising the exploration and extraction of deposits or delegate them to an entity within the sector.
- Direct the activities related to the subsoil cartography and knowledge or delegate them to an entity within the sector.
- Dictate the norms and regulations for the safe handling of nuclear and radioactive materials inside the country.
- Guarantee the exercise of internal control and supervise its effectiveness and compliance with its recommendations.
- Distribute the overall staff positions of the Ministry according to the structure, needs, plans and programs of the organization.
- Any other assigned duties.