The government confirmed that the price of ACPM (Colombia’s diesel) won’t rise in September 2026. For any company moving cargo by road, that’s real relief: one more month without a fuel cost increase. But it’s worth understanding why this decision was made, because the underlying problem hasn’t actually been solved.
What got frozen, and why
According to Colombia’s Energy and Gas Regulation Commission (CREG), reference prices for regular gasoline and ACPM will hold steady in September. Both will stay at the same levels in place since August. In numbers, ACPM averages $11,320 COP per gallon nationwide. Cali ($11,763) and Villavicencio ($11,716) are among the most expensive, while Cúcuta ($9,486) is the cheapest.
The decision doesn’t reflect an improvement in the fuel sector’s finances. It responds to the magnitude 7.4 earthquake that struck western Colombia on August 10. It had its epicenter in Chocó and left serious damage in Pereira, Cali, Manizales, and Armenia. The government wants to avoid a fuel increase raising the cost of transport into the affected areas. That includes both humanitarian aid and essential goods.
The freeze doesn’t erase the underlying pressure
Here’s the nuance that actually matters for anyone planning transport costs beyond this month. According to Sergio Cabrales, a professor at Universidad de los Andes and an energy policy expert, regular gasoline contributes revenue to the Fuel Price Stabilization Fund (FEPC). Diesel, on the other hand, still receives a subsidy of more than $5,000 COP per gallon. That gap could push the Fund’s subsidies to $9.4 trillion COP in 2026, even with prices frozen this month.
Diesel, not gasoline, is now the main fiscal risk for the Colombian government.
A Bancolombia analysis had already warned about this in July: the FEPC deficit could reach $14 trillion COP in 2026 without adjustments to domestic prices. That risk, moreover, is no longer concentrated in gasoline, but in ACPM. Other projections, like the one from the Colombian Oil and Gas Association (ACP), put it in a range of $6 to $8 trillion COP, depending on how oil prices move for the rest of the year. Either way, the conclusion is the same: the diesel subsidy is structural, and a one-month pause doesn’t remove it.
What this means for whoever moves cargo
As we already explained when analyzing Colombia’s boom in new cargo trucks, 97.7 % of those new vehicles still run on diesel. That means the cost of overland transport in the country stays tied to how ACPM behaves, month after month, no matter how many new trucks hit the road.
September brings a real, welcome pause, in a context also marked by the earthquake emergency. But the fiscal imbalance behind the diesel subsidy is still there, and the same sources backing this pause are the ones warning that an adjustment will eventually come. At Fenix, we track CREG and Finance Ministry decisions on fuel prices closely, precisely because it’s the variable that can move our clients’ overland transport costs the fastest.
Sources
- Pulzo — Government holds gasoline and ACPM prices steady for September 2026 (Spanish)
- El Colombiano — Gasoline and ACPM won’t rise in September: what will freezing prices cost the country? (Spanish)
- Infobae — Rising international gasoline prices increase the FEPC deficit (Spanish)
- Infobae — Gasoline and ACPM prices will need to rise in 2026 to avoid a $14 trillion shortfall (Spanish)
- El Colombiano — FEPC could close 2026 with a $6 trillion deficit due to rising fuel subsidies (Spanish)
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