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In its latest accusation against Pacific E&P (TSX:PRE), the USO claims the firm has been actively campaigning to block its workers from joining the union ranks, and so will take legal action against the operator.

Last week we commented on the biofuel association’s attempt to win friends and influence people over rising – or at least not falling very fast – fuel prices, blamed by MinMinas on the association’s products: ethanol and biodiesel.

Editor’s Note: If the news from Havana is to be believed, we are less than six months away from the signing of a peace accord with the Farc.

The Colombian Petroleum Association (ACP) used its recent congress to push for a tax reform that would address a heightened fiscal load on companies in order to improve investment, but President Juan Manuel Santos has ruled it out for 2015.

Globally there are 20M natural gas vehicles (NGVs) with over 500,000 of these in Colombia, according to Pablo Roda, a spokesperson with the Natural Gas Association (Naturgas) who spoke at the Colfecar transportation congress.

The president of the National Hydrocarbons Agency (ANH) Mauricio de la Mora reiterated the entity’s quest to create a flexible regulatory scheme for companies to complete their obligations and contracts, but said that this does not mean that the regulator will lose its teeth, and will root out those companies that do not meet their obligations.

After an exchange last week between government and Farc negotiators on the supposed reaches of transitional justice, the two have agreed to form a special commission to work out the differences.

Those of us who grew up in Anglo-Saxon political systems with their long tradition of cabinet solidarity were no doubt shocked by Colombian Vice President German Vargas Lleras’ speech to the industry at the Colombian Petroleum Association’s 50^th anniversary conference. In closing, he launched a virulent attack on his cabinet colleagues for not doing enough to maintain government revenues from the sector. The targets of his ire, MinMinas González and MinHacienda Cárdenas spoke later that morning.

GasThe Natural Gas Association (Naturgas) president Eduardo Pizano says that the organization expects new gas production to come online in the first quarter of 2016, with an additional 130mmcfd due to developments from a handful of companies.

Brito Alto communities in Casanare protest Muérgana Sur drilling, meanwhile Ecopetrol’s Castilla Field workers support a caimán rescue. These and other environmental stories in our periodic summary.