To the swaying of the waters of the Magdalena river they came from Peru the barges with the first stills that allowed on February 18, 1922 to put into operation the first Colombian refineryat that time in a remote place in Magdalena Medio called Barrancabermejawhich a few months later would become a municipality thanks to the oil era.
Historians point out that the construction of this industrial plant began in 1920 and was achieved thanks to the adventure of bringing the materials and the still from Talara, on the Pacific coast of Peru.
The anthropologist David Augusto López Rodríguez says that the extraction of crude oil grew in this region, where the first oil wellsbut transporting it was becoming more and more difficult, which is why it was urgent to be able to transform this product.
“It is an excellent production that has been perceived since 1918 in the oil wells – the anthropologist points out -. There were about 2,000 barrels of crude oil per day from a single well that the available containers were not enough to store and therefore it was set on fire and the well was covered. Bringing such amounts of crude oil to Barranquilla and then sending them to the United States was an expensive and difficult task.”
During the construction of the industrial complex, the National government declared, through a resolution dated June 13, 1921, that the concession would belong to the Tropical Oil Companycalled by the workers the ‘Troco’, for 30 years that would be counted from August 25 of that same year.
The experts still do not agree; however, two routes are presumed for the arrival of the necessary elements that allowed this construction: the first is a route from Peru across the Pacific Ocean to Buenaventura, then a trip to Honda, in Tolimaand then over the waters of the Magdalena down until reaching Barrancabermeja.
The other route would be from Panama to Barranquilla and then upstream through the Magdalena.
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Archive images of the plant during the 20th century.
Photo:Courtesy Pedro Chaparro archive
It should be noted that there are records, according to historians, about the construction of other refineries of lesser capacity before the one in Barrancabermeja. One in the Catatumbo area (North of Santander), which would have operated in 1905 in the name of the father of the former president Virgil Boat; however, it did not work for long.
Another in a hacienda in Meta, where a man named Roberto Bunch refined oil, and a small one in Cartagena, which operated in 1914 and processed crude brought from the United States.
But, without a doubt, the one in Barrancabermeja was the one that marked a milestone in the industry, as it was the largest and the one that generated permanent production, which increased at the rate of the industrialization of the country.
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The age of refining
That first year of entering operation of the plant in Barrancabermejaaccording to data from historians, the refining of 5,770 barrels of crude oil was achieved.
The oil arrived through a newly built 4-inch pipeline that brought it from the Infantas 2 well, located 38 kilometers away.
The president of the Colombian Association of Critical Economy and member of the Academy of Economic Sciences, Diego Otero Prada, recounts in a text that between 1922 and 1928 four derivatives were produced: ordinary gasoline, kerosene, fuel oil for motors and oil for boilers.
“The first three processed barrels were sent to the Republic Presidentto the Archbishop Primate and Mr. Eduardo Pombo, representative of the company in Bogotá”, said Otero Prada, who stressed that this immediately marked a new direction for the mobilization of the ships, which went from firewood to oil derivatives.
Thanks to the job opportunities offered by the oil wells, this area of just 3,000 natives, mostly peasants, grew overnight.
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Barrancabermeja refinery in the 1940s.
Photo:Courtesy Pedro Chaparro archive
Barrancabermeja, which was then a corregimiento of San Vicente de Chucurí (two days’ walk from the urban area), separated with the oil boom in search of a better distribution of royalties, and became a new municipality in Santander.
The town was not only filled with workers and merchants, but was also invaded by bars and prostitution houses, with women who came from different corners of Colombia and other countries.
There was so much money that circulated and the parties that were held that Otero Prada, at work ‘History of the foundation of Barrancabermeja and the role of oil’ –published by Uniciencia in 2017– tells that one of the first topics that were discussed in the council of the newly created municipality was that of prostitution.
“The size of prostitution and disease was such that this issue became a priority (…). A tax per prostitute was decreed, differentiating between first and second class, the former were required to pay a tax of two pesos per week and the latter, one peso. In September 1923 they had 57 brothels and canteens, out of a total of 95 commercial buildings”, reads the work.
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Oil and workers’ struggle
But the waters of the Magdalena River not only witnessed the industrial development of Colombia; As the labor supply grew, more and more workers undertook the arduous task of claiming their rights, which until then were unknown to those who worked every day at the refinery.
According to spokesmen for the Workers Trade Union (USO), The workers’ camps did not have beds and outbreaks of malaria began, which is why the first unions began to be created, demanding better conditions.
Between struggle and struggle, the USO was born on February 10, 1923, first known as Sociedad Unión Obrera, but which today also remains the largest and oldest trade union movement in Colombia.
Pedro Chaparro, who worked at Ecopetrol and was a leader of the USO, account that by 1924 the first great strike was carried out. It was such a big demonstration that even the prostitutes demanded better conditions.
“It was in 1924 the first great strike – remembers Chaparro -. Even the prostitutes entered that one. The labor movement was forged at the same time that the refinery and its production grew. This first fight brought better conditions in those camps.”
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Industrialization also gave rise to the first trade union struggles in the country.
Photo:Courtesy Pedro Chaparro archive
For the anthropologist López Rodríguez, these births (the municipality, the refinery and the USO) are not events that fall within the framework of pure coincidence, since they establish a link in the course of industrial and social development of this area and the country.
Oil exploitation became a university on-site. This represents the birth of an industrial working class in the country, a population that was previously made up of illiterate peasants.
“Most of those who arrived had no idea about oil exploitation,” explains the expert. We’re talking about people who expertly learned crude oil refining on the fly. This Barrancabermeja refinery was a great university of work, as he called it the poet William Valencia in 1930, for the oil industry in Colombia”.
In addition, the anthropologist points out, the number of American workers and foreigners in general who were part of the ‘Troco’ also marked patterns of consumption and a cosmopolitan vision in Barrancabermeja.
Orlando Fals Borda said in 2001 that modernity entered Colombia through Barrancabermeja. Hasty or not to say it, it can be mentioned that everything that happened in this area presented the country with a kind of profile of another reality and vision of the world.
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unstoppable growth
It is estimated, according to historian records, that for the year 1939 about 3 million barrels were distilled in the refinery. Remarkable growth.
All this returned to society in royalties again thanks to the demands of the workers. Proof of this is the great strike of 1948a rough year for the country in which the workers demanded that the concession held by the ‘Troco’, scheduled to end in August 1951, be handed over to the country for its operation by the State.
The workers’ claim was formalized on August 25, 1951, when the management of the refinery and the crude oil process passed into the hands of the Colombian Oil Company (Ecopetrol)the first state oil company.
Currently, according to spokesmen for ecopetrolthe Barrancabermeja refinery is a strategic asset of the Nation. From its facilities, the fuel demand of 80 percent of the interior of the country is covered and petrochemical products are supplied to the national industry.
It is the most important center of refining and petrochemical of the country with a maximum processing capacity of 250,000 barrels of oil per day that it transforms into clean fuels and petrochemical products such as aromatics, paraffins and polyethylene.
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Barrancabermeja Refinery today.
Photo:Jaime Moreno-Vargas
Daily fuel deliveries today are 105,000 barrels of regular motor gasoline, 95,000 barrels of diesel, 23,000 barrels of jetA-1 (jet fuel), 12,000 barrels of asphalt and 5,000 of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG).
The creation of this refinery has, for the anthropologist David López, positive and negative points.
“Undoubtedly, the growth of Barrancabermeja It was remarkable – highlights the expert. The road is built between Bucaramanga and Barrancabermejathe pipelines and all the technology are important things, but there are negative points, the effects on the environment, for example, as well as the political and social traumas due to many injustices committed before the workers claimed, they were high costs”.
To the swing of the mighty waters of the Magdalena river 100 years ago the first stills arrived on barges where crude oil would be processed for turn it into fuel. That fuel is what drove the industrial development of the country, the struggle of the workers and the progress of a region and a country.
MIGUEL ANGEL ESPINOSA BORRERO
Editor of THE TIME
On twitter: @Leugim40
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