In 1992, as conclusion to an industry seminar, in order to revise international experiences regarding institutional schemes in the gas segment, and being the massification of gas consumption the Government’s purpose as defined through document COMPES 2571 of 1991, the creation of a company dedicated to transport natural gas inside the country was conceived.  Said COMPES document had also determined that the construction of the transport infrastructure should be carried out by the private sector, which turned out to be unfeasible without the Government’s support.

As a consequence, the National Energy Commission - CNE - (national energy authority at such time, today CREG) made specifications regarding the gas pipeline system to be built and the institutional scheme to make its execution viable, which should be initially led by Ecopetrol in association with the private sector, in order to subsequently create a dedicated company as concluded in the seminary. To streamline such plan, and due to the fact that Ecopetrol did not have the resources to execute it, based on the CNE’s plan, COMPES 2646 of March 18, 1993, set out that the construction of the gas pipeline system should be a coordinated action between Ecopetrol and the private sector through contracting under BOMT or similar systems, and ordered the creation of a company exclusively dedicated to the transport activity.

In compliance with the provisions of the CNE and the CONPES, between 1993 and 1997 Ecopetrol directly developed, and through BOMT and similar contracts with the private sector, the construction of the gas pipeline system. The gas pipelines Ballena-Barranca and Mariquita-Cali were contracted by Ecopetrol under the BOMT system with Centragas (Enron’s subsidiary) and Transgas de Occidente (consortium between Transcanada and BP), respectively. Likewise, other gas pipelines under binding transport contracts, such as the branch to Medellin with Transmetano (company led by EPM), and others newly built by Ecopetrol or converted from oil pipeline to gas pipeline, such as Cusiana-LaBelleza.

Once the whole initially planned system was contracted, built or in the course of construction, the National Congress created ECOGAS - Empresa Colombiana de Gas - through Law 401 on August 20, 1997, as a state-owned industrial and commercial company focused on the natural gas transport business. Such law established that all assets and rights linked to the natural gas transport activity of ECOPETROL should be transferred to ECOGAS, as a result of the equity division. In addition, it was determined that the office of the new company should be located in Bucaramanga. For the next 10 years, ECOGAS saw the transport volume grow as gas spread across the energy market in the heart of the country, through the construction of distribution networks, gas-fired thermal plants and the transformation of industrial processes to gas-powered.