The National Planning Department (DNP) has been heralding its MapaRegalias as an innovative tool for citizens to have the latest information on royalty projects and update status on royalty funds in general at their fingertips.
“Cash is King” says Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) president Juan Caros Echeverry about the outlook for 2016. Apart from keeping a firm control on its costs, the NOC is also looking to both sell participation in some offshore blocks and acquire shares of blocks in foreign waters.
Senate President Luis Fernando Velasco has called on the government to eliminate the fuel tax to benefit the average consumer, while an expert panel convened to study the matter has recommended doubling it.
The Colombian Association of Oil Engineers (ACIPET) believes that the main focus of the industry and authorities this year should be to add 1B barrels of new crude reserves in order to position the sector for an eventual recovery of oil prices six or seven years down the road.
The USO kicked off the new year by denouncing the policies of President Juan Manuel Santos and warned again that there are plans to hand over Ecopetrol’s (NYSE:EC) assets to private multinationals. A broad-scale national strike should be planned immediately, the union said.
The National Hydrocarbons Agency (ANH) and MinMinas have been talking about a new procedure to assign areas for exploration and production since September. Finally in the very last week of the year, when government is normally shut down, the text has been published for comments. The comment period ends January 31st.
It is not quite at the same level of eloquence as the Queen’s annual broadcast to the Commonwealth but it might have achieved a similar level of platitudes-per-column inch if MinMinas González had not dropped a major ‘bomb’ on the issue of fuels for electrical generation.
Campetrol provided an update of its detailed drill rig information and so we updated our charts. Workover has stayed fairly stable since May at 34-35 rigs but Drilling dropped by 7 in October after rising in August.
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.
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