News and AnalysIs for

According to DANE (as reported by national business newspaper La Republica), exports fell 8.2% in November 2012. Part of this decline was due to a 13% drop in exports of fuels and other extractive industry products, and the decline in the export of beverages, food and agricultural products.

The Territorial Development Finance company (Findeter) is an autonomous corporation reporting to Colombia’s Minister of Finance (MinHacienda). It can raise its own debt (which has a sovereign rating) and receives deposits from government agencies. It then lends this money to municipalities, departments (states) and other entities providing low-cost financing for infrastructure and development projects. The company recently announced its budget for next year. From a Findeter press release, translated and with commentary by Hydrocarbons Colombia.

The Government established a public-private partnership with the Carare Railroad Development Corporation (Corpocarare) and metallurgical coal producer Minas Paz del Río. The route runs through the Central Cordillera where non-conventional hydrocarbons blocks are defined and a few have been assigned.

Orlando Díaz Montoya, manager of Ecopetrol’s Barrancabermeja refinery, spoke to national business paper La República about the modernization project that is moving forward there. According to Diaz, in 2012 the project advanced 12.3% and is now being engineered to join new systems to existing ones. To start this phase requires the purchase of land, logging permits, permits for the connection to the national interconnected system, an Environmental Management Plan and a Port Concession.

The Territorial Development Finance company (Findeter) is an autonomous corporation reporting to Colombia’s Minister of Finance (MinHacienda). It can raise its own debt (which has a sovereign rating) and receives deposits from government agencies. It then lends this money to municipalities, departments (states) and other entities providing low-cost financing for infrastructure and development projects. The company recently announced its budget for next year. From a Findeter press release, translated and with commentary by Hydrocarbons Colombia.

President Santos announced that pending royalties resources will be disbursed in February. The OCAD last year approved CoP$2.1T (US$1.4B) for projects and, according to Santos, “These resources will continue disbursement. Next month all those resources will be disbursed “(as quoted in national business newspaper La Republica).

The climactic phenomenon known as El Niño manifests itself in the Andes as a drought period. Colombia has been threatened by forest fires and there are the usual questions about water levels in reservoirs. The country’s electrical grid is powered primarily by hydro power. In exceptionally dry El Niño years, the level of power generation can drop. The Environment Ministry recently issued a press release, translated here and with commentary by Hydrocarbons Colombia.

Government and Farc negotiators met today in Havana to resume peace talks. It was widely reported in the Colombian press that lead negotiator Humberto de la Calle admonished the Farc to stay focused on the agenda and to avoid attempts to practice public politics while still armed. Surprisingly perhaps, there was a positive response from the guerrilla negotiating team.

The Colombian Petroleum Workers Union (known as USO) apparently also takes an extended vacation period over the year-end holidays since news was light over past three weeks. The biggest news was an agreement with SAExploration Company in Puerto Gaitan, Meta to settle a work stoppage. The company took back terminated workers and provided bonuses.

Incidents were up 42% this week to 34, the highest since December 8th. As our researcher said, it is clear that vacations are over. This sent our 4-week Moving Average up 10% having previously dropped continuously since the week of October 20th, except for a small blip the week of December 1st. It now sits at 27 incidents per week although still down from a peak of 58 back in October.