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(Bloomberg) -- Colombia’s Energy Minister Andres Camacho said President Gustavo Petro accepted his resignation amid fractures within the leftist leader’s administration.

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Petro asked his cabinet members to resign following a chaotic cabinet meeting this month and as his administration prepares for presidential elections in 2026. Camacho, who had been in the role for nearly two years and is said to be planning to run for senate, confirmed his resignation in a post on X.

Camacho’s replacement will be tasked with weaning the nation off its dependence on fossil fuels. Since Colombia’s first leftist leader came into power in 2022, he has refused to sign new drilling licenses even as a natural gas shortage forces the Andean nation to turn to costly imports of the fuel to supply homes and businesses.

Gas distributors have warned that fuel prices will rise as much 36% this month in cities including Bogotá and Medellín, given that buying cargoes of liquefied gas from the US and elsewhere are two or three times more expensive than domestic supplies. Camacho has repeatedly denied the need for imports, blaming companies for reselling gas in the secondary market and for opting to buy the fuel from abroad and then transferring those costs to residential users.

“My commitment from now on is to continue working for change,” a just energy transition and the continuation of a leftist government movement, Camacho wrote on X on Tuesday.

Camacho was among cabinet members, including the environment minister and the vice president, who questioned Petro on the return to government of Armando Benedetti, a former diplomat, and the promotion of Laura Sarabia, 30, to the post of foreign minister. They argued that the two loyalists don’t represent the political project that helped make Petro the country’s first leftist president.

Benedetti was named as Colombia’s interior minister late Monday.

(Adds background and a quote from Camacho starting in the fourth paragraph.)

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