Oil industry and road traffic fatalities in contemporary Colombia

Abstract

This paper studies the effects that oil extraction activities in Colombia have on the number of dead/injured people as a consequence of road-related accidents. Starting in 2004, the increasing exploitation of oil wells in some Colombian departments has worsened the traffic conditions due to the increased presence of trucks transporting crude oil from the wells to the refineries; this phenomenon has not been accompanied by an improvement in the road system with dramatic consequences in terms of road viability. The descriptive and empirical analysis presented here focuses on the period 2004–2011; results from descriptive statistics indicate a positive relationship between the presence of oil extraction activities and the number of either dead/injured people. Panel regressions for the period 2004–2011 confirm that, among other factors, the presence of oil-extraction activities did play a positive and statistical significant role in increasing the number of dead/injured people.

Keywords:

• road traffic fatalities
• oil extraction activities
• Colombia
• panel data

Acknowledgement

We would like to thank Dr Georgina Gomez for her very valuable comments as well as all the participants at the seminar held at Universidad de los Llanos, Faculty of Economics. This research has been possible thanks to the Nuffic NICHE Project Col036 with the Universidad de los Llanos. All the opinions expressed in the paper remain of the authors.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Oil extraction activities are mainly concentrated in the departments of Meta, Casanare and Arauca, which are located in the South-West of the Eastern Cordillera. Nowadays, the department of Meta accounts for 51% of the national oil production with the municipalities of Puerto Gaitán, Acacías and Castilla La Nueva producing 58%, 19% and 16% of the department oil production. In Casanare, the municipalities of Yopal, Orocue and Aguazul are the ones with the highest concentration of oil sites.

2. Oil exploitation has started in Colombia more than 20 years ago but the intensification of this activity has only occurred in the last decade. Even though the purpose of this study is to analyse the link between oil extraction activities and road fatalities, it is worth mentioning the fact that the intensification of oil activities has affected the society in many other ways. As examples, we mention the armed conflicts aiming at establishing the control over the oil plants, whereas the pipelines and the production of oil has become a strategic priority for all of Colombian's military and para-military groups (Dunning & Wirpsa, 2004).

3. It is important to note that other economic and social circumstances may have contributed to the internal migration process (e.g. the presence of violence and proliferation of economic activities in some departments). The lack of methodical studies in Colombia on the internal migration process, though, does not allow us to estimate whether some positive spillovers effects may have manifested as well.

4. GDP in Colombia has increased by 215% from 2005 and 2013. The increase has been constant in the study period, apart from 2009 and 2010. For more information, please refer to the following website http://www.tradingeconomics.com/colombia/gdp lastly accessed the 11/04/2014.

5. For more information, please refer to the following website http://www.eltiempo.com/colombia/llano/ARTICULO-WEB-NEW_NOTA_INTERIOR-12933371.html lastly accessed the 14/03/2014.

6. For more information, please refer to the following website http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTTRANSPORT/EXTTOPGLOROASAF/0,,menuPK:2582226∼pagePK:64168427∼piPK:64168435∼theSitePK:2582213,00.html lastly accessed the 20/03/2014.

7. For more information, please refer to the following website http://www.medicinalegal.gov.co/index.php/estadisticas/forensis lastly accessed the 25/04/2014.

8. For more information, please refer to the following website http://www.dane.gov.co/index.php/poblacion-y-demografia/proyecciones-de-poblacion lastly accessed the 26/04/2014.

9. For more information, please refer to the following website http://www.minminas.gov.co/minminas/hidrocarburos.jsp?cargaHome=3&id_categoria=158&id_subcategoria=214 lastly accessed the 28/04/2014.

However, it has been assumed that if a municipality present oil extraction activities during the period 2009– 2011 also present this activity for the period 2004–2008. This assumption is valid because the increase in oil production in Colombia from 2008 is related to the growth of the amount of oil extraction in municipalities where mining activities previously existed. Besides, the high sunk costs of the activity allow producers foresee no change of location in the medium term and the spatial concentration of oil fields.

10. For more information, please refer to the following website http://www.minsalud.gov.co/salud/paginas/indicadoresbasicossp.aspx lastly accessed the 28/04/2014. Data on years before 2010 are not available.

11 For more information, please refer to the following website http://www.invias.gov.co/index.php/red-vial-nacional lastly accessed the 28/04/2014.