News and AnalysIs for

Pacific Rubiales always says it has no labor relations issues but the USO continues to publish reports that it does. This week it is workers fired in the mid-2011 protests so technically they do not represent PRE labor. A second article about qualified technicians saying that Pacific will not hire them smells like the same story printed twice: PRE will not hire them because the company already fired them once. The USO – making common cause with the ELN and probably the Farc as well – is heating up the debate on kicking out multinational oil companies. Root cause is probably that they find Ecopetrol more pliant.

Counts were back up to 37 almost exactly at the average of the previous 52 weeks (36.5). On average during the past year, 85% of incidents have been initiated by the Armed Forces and this week the percentage is almost exactly that at 84%. Our 4-week Moving Average incident count was down 5% to 36.5 incidents per week exactly the 52 week average.

The graph shows the percentage of oil and gas employment which is sourced locally. These survey estimates come the annual Hays “Oil and Gas Global Salary Guide”, a fascinating look into the structure of industry employment. Considering industry comments about finding talent, it is perhaps surprising to see that South America sits in the middle of the chart, with a level of local sourcing ahead of Africa and just behind North America.

April 9th has much symbolic value for Colombians. On that day in 1948, a great popular leader Jorge Eliécer Gaitán was assassinated in Bogotá. His death precipitated a riot that destroyed buildings and businesses in the city center. Many were killed as government troops fired on the crowds. More importantly, it was the starting point for a wave of civil inter-factional violence that eventually resulted in the founding of the Farc and later the ELN. This year was the 65th anniversary of Gaitan’s death and with the possibility of peace as a backdrop, support grew for a march to mark the date and show that the civil population wanted the talks to go well..

On Friday April 5th, the National Environmental Licensing Authority (ANLA) convened the general public, representatives of the public and private sectors, control agencies, nongovernmental organizations, ethnic minorities, rural associations and academics to participate in the 2012 Accountability Public Hearing.

Yesterday we published a calculation that the country needed something like 350 exploratory wells to have a good chance at reserves remaining flat with production at 1Mbd. This number is 2.7 times the record number of exploratory wells achieved last year. It was not an opinion, it was a calculation based on recent statistical evidence. Now today the National Hydrocarbons Agency (ANH) announces it is lowering – not raising – its expectations for exploratory drilling, for this year and next. From the ANH website, translated and with commentary by Hydrocarbons Colombia.

We have heard Orlando Cabrales give the speech so many times while he was president of the National Hydrocarbons Agency (ANH) that we could probably deliver the slides ourselves, perhaps even in our sleep. Now German Arce Zapata has taken over. He avoided the CWC Colombia Oil and Gas Summit and Exhibition in Cartagena, leaving that job to MinMinas Renjifo and went to Punta del Este in Uruguay to deliver, if not his maiden speech then one of this first presentations. We are just not sure we like the message. From an ANH press release, translated and with comments by Hydrocarbons Colombia

The annual Hays “Oil and Gas Global Salary Guide” is always an interesting read, filled with information. This chart shows the average salary for a local worker in the oil and gas industry, the average salary for an imported i.e expat worker and the estimated average (the heavy line). There are lots of questions about sample size and methodology (why, for example, are imported workers to Argentina paid less than locals?) but the data is interesting none-the-less.

Minister of Mines and Energy Federico Renjifo spoke to an important legal conference in Cartagena this week. This was not his speech to the CWC Colombia Oil & Gas Summit and Exhibition which our correspondent said was the same speech trotted out at every conference and so unworthy of commentary. These remarks to senior lawyers and judges reflect the fine line that the Santos government is trying to tread between developing extractive industries while maintaining high environmental and community relationship standards. From a MinMinas press release, translated and with commentary by Hydrocarbons Colombia.

We will report separately on MinMinas Renjifo’s comments to the annual CWC Colombia Oil & Gas Summit and Exhibition in Cartagena but there was a lively forum on exploration that got to the heart of the country’s current problems with reserve growth. The issue for the industry participants in a round table and especially for Talisman’s Chris Spaulding and Gran Tierra’s Duncan Nightingale is that Colombia is not drilling anywhere close to enough wells.