News and AnalysIs for

This morning the legal firm of Norton Rose and the Canada-Colombia Chamber of Commerce (CCCC) held a seminar on anti-corruption practices with special emphasis on the American Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the Canadian Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act and the recent Colombian anti-corruption act. A large number of extraction industry firms are members of the CCCC and this issue is always a concern in these sectors. Indeed the only company ever prosecuted in Canada under the act was an oil and gas firm.

EnvironmentRCN Radio reports that Colombia’s Consejo de Estado (State Council) has ordered the regional environmental authorities (CAR) to supervise road repairs and by extension other major infrastructure projects for potential environmental consequences.

RCN Radio has been giving considerable coverage to the problems of Meta, not always with a positive view towards the hydrocarbons industry. Last week however, it wrote an article on the drive from Bogota to Villavicencio with an objective mindset. This route is used heavily by tanker trucks moving crude from the Llanos to ports and refineries and, on the return leg, naphtha as a diluent to the fields. The report makes it clear there will not be a solution to congestion and dangerous accidents anytime soon and that there could be short-term consequences for the industry.

Reported incidents were down this week for the second week in a row but the distribution of events was somewhat unusual with nearly half associated with the theft of crude or gasoline, or events near pipelines.

The current Finance Minister and former Mines and Energy Minister, Mauricio Cardenas gives his evaluation of the new royalty system. The system has been theoretically in place since January but it really only got going in 2Q12. From a MinHacienda press release. Translated and with commentary by Hydrocarbons Colombia.

Canadian services firm Zedi Inc has selected PetroTiger, a Colombian oil services firm with operations in Colombia, Ecuador, Argentina, Mexico and Panama, to resell its services.

This is the first time that Zedi has authorized an international reseller.

This map is the portion of the National Hydrocarbons Agency (ANLA)’s detailed map of exploration and production blocks in the area around the Caribbean islands of San Andres. The blue-grey color means the blocks are available for assignment but currently unassigned. It is doubtful if anyone will ask for them now. The Environment Ministry just had the area (known as “Seaflower”) declared one of 18 marine areas under the “Protocol on Specially Protected Wildlife Areas in the Caribbean Region”.

Yesterday a prominent Colombian congressman, Simon Gaviria went on a national radio program and made a statement (which he attributed to the Finance Minister) about Pacific Rubiales that – if true – would have had a significant impact on the company’s future performance. We will not repeat it so we are not even accidentally responsible for continuing a rumor which is patently false./

We have been collecting financial and operational data on the companies with significant production in Colombia. Our database goes back to 2009 and so far covers nine companies in depth. The seven in the chart are sufficiently mature for us to estimate their average Operating Income for the last year. Economic theory says that larger companies in terms of revenue should have better margins if only because they can spread their fixed costs over a bigger base. Sometimes larger companies lose this advantage by being bloated and inefficient.

Pacific Rubiales receives a lot of criticism in the alternative press for its massive publicity campaign. Image advertising is seemingly everywhere and the company is the major sponsor of the National Soccer Team. Websites like La Silla Vacia, Kien y Ke or RazonPublica.com speculate that the publicity is an attempt to buy the mainstream media and whitewash what must be terrible things the company must be doing.