News and AnalysIs for

Colombia and Peru signed ‘Inter institutional Cooperation Agreement’ to promote energy-mining sector development in both countries.

Protests have affected the oil industry significantly over the past several years. However, blockades against the industry decreased last year, compared to data from 2015. The Colombian Petroleum Association (ACP) provided the data.

We use weekly closing oil prices in our database so, for our purposes, January ‘ended’ last Friday. Prices were essentially flat but the graph shows that traders are deeply suspicious about where they are going in the medium and long-term.

Frictions between Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) and the USO in Cartagena, as well as USO Barrancabermeja’s negotiations with Gasoriente were two of the biggest news items of the week. The union is not happy about the NOC’s latest decisions. Shocking!

Pacific Exploration & Production Corp. (TSX: PEN) announced the appointment of Barry Larson as new CEO. The company´s new head will start working February 20, 2017.

The situation at Bioenergy is turning unsustainable. A group of locals hindered operations in the ethanol plant once again.

Rather than scatter my predictions over a number of articles, I decided to consolidate them in one. At the very least, it will be easier to check how I / we did next January.

Noticing GTE’s (TSX:GTE) huge growth in YE2016 reserves and thinking about Ecopetrol’s (NYSE:EC) policy to revert all Association contracts got us thinking about concentration / consolidation in the Colombian oil and gas industry.

According to the National Statistics Department (DANE), fuel imports fell during the January-November period of last year. Total imports also decreased. Colombian total imports were US$40.8B in 2016.

Gilson Ribeiro, Manager of Chevron’s (NYSE: CVX) Fuels and Lubricants for Colombia and Central America said the Colombian fuel market has not seen big changes like the ones that are coming now that ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM) is leaving the country after 50 or 60 years.