Mintransporte Cecilia Alvarez-Correa announced road infrastructure investments planned by the government for next year. (As reported by national business paper La Republica) According to Alvarez-Correa, the government plans to allocate CoP$18 billion (US$9.9B) for infrastructure in 2014, CoP$11 billion more than in 2012.
National newspaper El Espectador reports that a delegation from the IACHR is in Colombia to analyze the situation of human rights in the country. This visit, which is by invitation of Colombia, can be seen as a test of the will of the Colombian State to cooperate with the Commission in monitoring human rights in the region. It is also a step forward for Colombia on its way to get off the blacklist of the Commission.
According to a survey by national radio station W Radio of 1000 adult men and women, Santos president’s favorability is at 48%, while 44% of respondents do not agree with how Santos is managing the country. 77% of respondents disapprove the way Santos handled the San Andres issue.
Bucaramanga newspaper La Vanguardia reports that The College of Management and Decision (OCAD), responsible for defining investment projects to be financed from royalties, approved CoP$3.2B (US$1.8B) of the CoP$6B(US$3.3B)that will be allocated for this purpose in 2012.
National radio station W radio announced that Omega Energy Colombia has bought the assets of Russian oil giant Lukoil. The assets consist of the Condor association contract in the Llanos basin, foothills area. Lukoil had 70% of the contract in partnership with Ecopetrol. The estimated reserves are 6.09M boe but nothing has been produced since 2007 (3,700 boe for the year).
Not much new this week except a major fine on Ecopetrol subcontractor and subsidiary Ecodiesel for US$333.000 for refusing to negotiate with the union which the USO says is the lowest fine that can be levied in this case. Otherwise, the Termotécnica dispute drags on.
Incidents were down this week, returning the average for the last four weeks. The vast majority of these were the Army continuing to discover camps, minefields and weapons caches so perhaps the Farc are keeping up their truce commitment.
According Fedesarrollo (as reported by national business newspaper Portafolio), low investment and the low quality of the roads make it difficult to Colombia being competitive in transport. Moreover, the government lacks information about 86% of the country’s roads which makes it impossible to know what is their condition.
National business magazine Portafolio reported that Enrique Velasquez, Ecopetrol Exploration VP, said that, while in 2010 the company’s oil, condensate and natural gas reserves were 1714 Mboe, in 2011 they totaled 1857 Mboe, an 8.3% increase. In 2011, the reserve replacement ratio was 164%. However, it is important to note that 2011 reserves report did not include the two previous years’ findings. Velasquez said that these reserves will be enough for 8.4 years.
The National Hydrocarbons Agency (ANH) was active this week with announcements of the final results of the supplemental auction round, phase 2 of the 2012 Round of auctions, an accounting of its actions for the year and a number of press interviews highlighting plans for next year.
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