News and AnalysIs for

This year had its fair share of all three (cue the Ennio Morricone theme in the background) although it is harder to find the good than it is to find the ugly. This is a personal wrap-up of the year about to end and a look ahead at what might happen in 2016.

Colombia has risen to the 10th spot in biofuel production according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), mostly based on sugar cane and palm oil. But an alternative source which could be applied is used vegetable oil, which authorities say is already being employed as contraband.

Government commentators and the local press blame the slide in oil prices for the significant devaluation of the Colombian peso seen in the past 18 months. The graph shows the kind of charts used to illustrate the point. We worked a little harder with some more rigorous statistical analysis and found that oil price movements are indeed important, explaining about 40% of exchange rate movements but this has only been the case since oil prices ‘fell off a cliff’ in the middle of last year.

The Puerto Bahia port facility has presented the results of its first six months of operation, in which it says it has exported more than 640,000 barrels of crude on four tankers, as well as 14 ships with general cargo.

In the latest advance from Havana, government and Farc negotiators announced that they have reached an agreement on both transitional justice and victim restitution.

Equion Energy president María Victoria Riaño said that the company is passing through a complex moment and is finishing a round of layoffs to cut costs. She also lamented the slow progress and community problems that prevented seismic exploration during the boom times when prices were high.

After a necessary change in the rules, which allowed individuals access to the recently-opened Mexican oil market, and after two disappointing Round One auctions, the third phase was held yesterday (December 15, 2015). All 25 available contracts were awarded, making it is the most successful round so far.

Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) says that it will deepen its spending cuts and austerity program and reduce its investments in 2016 to US$4.8B, in a plan that looks to keep production at a similar level of 2015.

For the first time, The National Planning Department (DNP) held an awards session to recognize the best use of royalty funds in an initiative called “Well Invested Royalties”, with top honors going to a governor and three mayors. This and other royalty related stories in our periodic summary.

Both Promigás and Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) have received recognition for community programs and innovation, while the NOC says it has also successfully finished a number of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs in Huila and Nariño. These and other stories on CSR in our periodic summary.