News and AnalysIs for

The renovation of Ecopetrol’s (NYSE:EC) management team is now complete, following the arrival of Juan Carlos Echeverry last year and the shuffling of the 22 upper management positions.

Communities in the area of influence of Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) warn that the NOC is nearly their only strategic partner, paying for roads, infrastructure and social programs, and so they face an uncertain future as the NOC slashes its costs.

The ELN continues to be the source of guerrilla-initiated incidents and while the count of reports near oil and gas infrastructure went down by 2 there were more incidents in non-oil-and-gas areas than the previous week. Armed Forces-reported incidents went down by 9 although they remained well above the 2016 average.

The controversy surrounding overruns in the modernization of the Cartagena Refinery (Reficar) is not the only issue facing Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) with potential to cause a public stir. The sale of petrochemical firm Propilco, despite Reficar synergies, and another problematic refinery project at Bioenergy are also present.

Editor’s Note: David Yanovich is a Colombian consultant and investment banker who has been part of the Hydrocarbons Colombia community since the very beginning.

Last week we asserted that Naturgas president Eduardo Pizano was incorrect when he said that there was enough gas to meet demand and that El Niño had only caused the “feeling of shortages”.

Gran Tierra Energy (TSX:GTE) says 2015 was a “transformational” year and it is in good financial shape to be competitive going forward. It posted a loss for the year of US$268M, but shrunk its loss in the fourth quarter by over 70% compared to the previous year.

Confounded by the cuts in investment and exploration due to the fall in crude prices, Colombian services firms are looking outside of the hydrocarbons industry to find new clients.

USO delegates met with management from Cenit, the transportation spin-off of Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) and warned that a plan to fold remaining transport assets into Cenit will make way for Cenit’s sale.

GasThe president of the Association of Natural Gas (Naturgas) insisted that the supply of natural gas is just fine, and that the “feeling” of scarcity is just due to El Niño.