GasMinMinas finally released the June production figures for gas and there was yet another monthly decline, the fifth such decline in a row. The graph shows quarterly data which perhaps shows more dramatically how much it has fallen.
The explosive growth of blockades, protests and social conflicts has a direct impact on the finances of the regions responsible for them, and a recent study from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) sought to quantify how much these conflicts are costing.
The government supplied more than CoP$12.723B (US$4.1M) to eight municipalities in the Cesar Department as production incentives for social or development projects. This and other Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) related stories in our periodic summary.
The head of the National Environmental Licensing Agency (ANLA) Claudia Victoria González Hernández and MinAmbiente Luis Gilberto Murillo made a visit to Cartagena as part of a national campaign to meet with the teams of regional environmental entities.
Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) has reiterated its call for dialogue at the Gibraltar gas plant, and that the U’wa community is putting itself and the installation at risk, so the NOC has brought in personnel to secure the facility. It insists that there are no public forces present, although local press reports contradict this.
A conflict between Ecopetrol’s (NYSE:EC) subsidiary Hocol with an indigenous community in Ortega, Tolima has stretched for more than eight months and shows no signs of improvement. Now the municipality is warning it has no resources for public services as a result.
The Colombian Chamber of Oil Goods and Services (Campetrol) published an analysis of global oil operators and found several examples of firms which were able to reduce costs, but still invest in E&P and grow reserves. However, it said Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) was not one of them.
The president of Equion, María Victoria Riaño, said that the main problem facing the company today is “civil disorder” at the national level, affecting investment and company results, fueled by a lack of clear rules.
Carrying on from last week’s commentary, thoughts on the disconnect between Bogotá and the countryside. The memory of an old Star Trek TV episode merged with the ‘Athens of the Americas’ and the ANH’s ‘Territorial Strategy’.
Last week the Constitutional Court approved the government’s proposed referendum on the peace agreements with the Farc. The Colombian people still have their say, but the last legal hurdle has been surmounted.