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The Barco oil concession was one of the main concessions in Colombia during the early development of its petroleum industry, the other being the De Mares concession. Oil was first found in the Norte de Santander department near the border with Venezuela in 1905, but development did not start until 1936. A joint venture between the Texas Corporation and Socony-Vacuum (now Texaco and Mobil) sank the wells and built a 263-mile (423 km) pipeline across the mountains and through swampy jungle to the Caribbean coast at Coveñas. Workers were harassed by Motilone people defending their territory, and several died. The concession began operation in 1939 and continued into the 1960s, when it began to be depleted. Other fields in the region are still productive.
The Catatumbo moist forests (NT0108) is an ecoregion in Venezuela and Colombia to the west and east of Lake Maracaibo. It includes four regions of moist forest on slightly higher ground than the dry forest and mangroves that surround the lake. The forest has unique flora related to the flora of the Amazon basin. It is badly degraded due to farming, livestock grazing and oil exploration.