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The executive director of the Energy and Gas Regulatory Commission (CREG), Germán Castro, said that the government will be more involved in building strategic infrastructure for the sector and will issue new standards to improve it.

GasOrlando Cabrales, President of Naturgas, discussed the natural gas market and made recommendations for improvements. Government representatives also spoke.

GasAccording to Naturgas, vehicular natural gas service in Colombia had more than 500,000 new users in 2016, but this year, that number is expected to fall to 300,000.

Canacol Energy Ltd. (TSX: CNE) is analyzing various strategies for its future. The company sees natural gas as an increasingly attractive option.

The National Army has executed operations along the Colombian border to fight fuel smuggling. The regions with the highest rates of contraband were Arauca, Casanare, Vichada and Nariño. Most of the fuel came from Venezuela. The development of these and other stories in our periodic Security Summary.

The Ministry of Mines and Energy (MinMinas) published the table of fuels prices for main cities of the country. There are many complaints about this decision.

Unless you invested in Geopark (NYSE:GPRK) or Parex (TSX:PXT). But then the global indices were also down.

MinMinas has ordered an increase in the bioethanol blend in fuel, from 6% to 8%, as a measure to mitigate Medellin’s pollution crisis.

Colombia is betting on offshore exploration in the Caribbean Sea and Ecopetrol (NYSE: EC) announced gas discovery in the Kronos field a few months ago. This has generated optimism in the industry because the field could be very important for the country.

USO rejected Ecopetrol’s (NYSE:EC) administration actions against them, as it denounced “massive” layoffs and persecution of USO’s members and leaders. The Union announced that some of its leaders are now in Cartagena discussing possible measures to face the situation. As usual, they reiterated their commitment to defend workers’ rights.