In Colombia, oil and gas production contributes to a 4.4% of GDP as of 2016 and is considered a vital resource for the national economic development. Today, the oil and gas production is around 830.000 barrels per day. In the past 100 years, there are key geographical areas in the country where the oil and gas industry has been operating. Over the years, the oil and gas industry in Colombia has faced challenges with the communities behavior, environmental incidents and changes on the environment regulation. As a result of this, in the last three years Colombia has reported more than 9,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd) of deferred production, due to strikes that directly affect field operations. The following article describes the factors considered in Colombia for the successful adaptation and application of Energy4me, a Society of Petroleum Engineers energy education methodology that explains the oil and gas concepts through innovative laboratories that help understand, in a simple way, how the oil industry works. In the last two years, more than 8,000 people have been involved in the Energy4me program in Colombia. This paper describes the methodology applied for the successful execution of the Energy4me program; integrating the analysis of the targeted population, adaptation of the technical information and the industry's view on the environment. Additionally, it quantitatively portraits the participation of student volunteers from different universities around the country and the positive impact of this experience. Sample design techniques and data analysis are applied to quantitatively measure the results obtained, among which stands out the decrease of the energy industry rejection by at least 58%, as well as other benefits; which are backed up by the theory of shared value. With the novel adaptation and implementation of the pedagogical methodology of Energy4Me and with the creation of new educational materials to simplify technical knowledge sharing, it is concluded that a healthy communication channel between the energy sector and the communities exposed to oil operations can be constructed to achieve a reduction in the overall communities oil and gas rejection.

In Colombia, one of the biggest challenges for the oil and gas industry is to generate a sound reputation and a new perception about its benefits to the communities located in the area of influence. Even though, the oil and gas industry generates between 9 to 11% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Colombia, there is a negative perception of local communities due to the impacts of the operations of the industry on the people and environment; as a consequence, the implementation of pedagogical methodologies to educate communities about the sustainable view of the modern Oil and gas Industry, and the importance to the access to energy and water is a need. In this sense, programs such as Energy4Me and PetrolCopa Reto Escolar have been implemented over the last two years in different regions of Colombia, which have allowed the collection of a considerable amount of data with great technical and social value from more than 10000 participants. This information has been refined, processed and analyzed to show how data science generates added value in the continuous improvement of the methodologies implemented by the data center of SPE Colombian Section; thus, improving relationship between industry and local communities through a fluent communication and knowledge channel. The analysis of the information and its implementation in these educational programs was carried out through the application of different statistical methods and digital tools for processing and monitoring information, which resulted in the design of optimal processes for the collection of structured and unstructured data such as; community behavior parameters, social problems, demographic characteristics and acquired technical knowledge. This process took into account at the same time other related variables such as the heterogeneity of rural communities, logistical and operational challenges and the social conditions of each region. The data gathering process involved 500 volunteers in more than 5000 people from different regions, ethnic groups, ages, gender and level of education. Once the information was correlated and the methodological approach of the programs improved, trends and direct relationships were established between the data analyzed and the decrease in the rate of rejection by the communities towards Oil and Gas industry in the study regions.