News and AnalysIs for

The fundamentals are not trending positively and so our readers are not planning for a brighter 2016.

This week “What we think” is really “What you think”. We broke our annual Quick Pulse Survey into two pieces, one addressing our traditional look ahead at 2016 and one addressing what we think is the main government policy issue at this time: incentives to get companies exploring again.

Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) president Juan Carlos Echeverry has in the past defended what others consider high taxes on oil companies, but in a recent report a national radio chain says he sees the nearly 70% state take as being a barrier to foreign investment, affecting in particular exploration wells.

The USO held its Second National Assembly for Peace, in which it said that its work in a post-conflict it would focus on mining-energy policy, regional development and “promoting the culture of peace”.

Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) says it has finished a demonstration plant in Chichimene in the Meta Department which uses a technology to lighten heavy and extra heavy crudes, allowing them to be shipped in pipelines while cutting the company’s need to purchase naphtha as a diluent.

Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) is handing over three oil fields to its own subsidiary Hocol in Ortega, Tolima, which caused concern and even blockades by the local community.

Senator Manuel Guillermo Mora has called for the government to turn to coal instead of gas to supply thermal generators, and to establish a price stabilization fund using royalty savings.

Improvised, illegal and dangerous valves installed along Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) pipelines are causing it to lose a growing amount of crude, also resulting in risks of severe environmental damage.

This Thursday, November 19 the peace process in Havana marked its third anniversary involving more than 500 days of talks in the Cuban capital. While there is certain progress, time is running out on a March 23 deadline to sign a final agreement, as the parties cannot get past the issue of transitional justice.

Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) can celebrate that unlike nearly all of its private industry peers it has been able to post a profit in the third quarter of 2015, but it has seen its production fall slightly, and its E&P business continues to post losses. This has been compensated by its refining business to some degree, while transportation income nearly doubled.