News and AnalysIs for

The legal representative of 20% of Pacific E&P (TSX:PRE) investors, Jaime Granados, promised legal action in Colombia if company management enacted a debt for share swap which could mean a total loss of value for the company’s shareholders.

Pacific E&P (TSX:PRE) said that it has been formally notified of the Colombian Constitutional Court’s decision to suspend operations near the Venecedor Piriri indigenous community in the Quifa block. It said it would suspend operations in this area, but that it would not materially affect its production.

We always reserve this spot for our monthly rant about the government’s fuel price formula. New fuel prices are announced on or about the first of the month. But apparently because there is no real MinMinas (the minister in charge, María Lorena Gutiérrez, is only concerned with the electricity crisis), the ministry decided to maintain prices where they were in March. We take the opportunity to update our producer price index graphs.

Guess we can say the rally is officially over. Brent hit a 2016 peak of US$41.20 for the week ending March 18 but has slid in each of the past two weeks. WTI hit its peak last week at US$40.44 but dropped 7.5% this week.

The continued commentary from the Naturgas conference (even though it was before Easter) and Canacol’s results meant the week’s news had a decided bias towards gas.

The USO said that a total of 10 workers have been fired by Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) from the Barrancabermeja Refinery after participating in a strike on March 17^th, which the union said violates the legitimate rights of workers to protest and puts labor stability at risk.

GasThe head of Colombia’s Natural Gas Association (Naturgas) Eduardo Pizano said that that Colombia still has reserves for another 12 or 13 years, but that the exploration pace must speed up, and new discoveries in the Caribbean must be produced to attend to Colombia’s growing demand.

Colombian press speculates that President Juan Manuel Santos could designate a new Minister of Mines and Energy (MinMinas) this week. But the process to find a replacement to Tomás González in the midst of an energy supply crisis and constant investigations has not proven easy.

Traditionally, Colombians have thought of their natural gas as coming from La Guajira.  Even when we started HCC in 2012, La Guajira represented 51% of gas production. But by 4Q15, that figure had dropped to 31%. Casanare is the new leader.

Representatives of the government and the ELN guerrilla have officially announced a start to talks after the latest round of informal discussions which took place in Caracas. The parties agreed to a six point agenda which will be similar to talks with the Farc, but move at its own pace and separately.