News and AnalysIs for

USO VP and communications secretary Edwin Palma warned media that Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) will cut 2000 positions across the country, and that the NOC has already issued a voluntary separation plan to workers.

The recent oil production results for February, 2016 were published without commentary by MnMinas. Perhaps it is because there is only an Acting MinMinas, Maria Lorena Gutiérrez and her role is the electrical ‘crisis’.

Too much time on my hands during the Easter break, too much Janice Joplin and too much thinking about the Constitutional Court had definitely brought me down.

The Energy Mining Planning Unit (UPME) presented its report on the natural gas sector in the recent Colombian Natural Gas Association (Naturgas) and said that reforming the transportation system is a top priority, along with improving reliability and building a regasification plant on the Pacific coast.

Ecopetrol’s president Juan Carlos Echeverry offered a spirited defense of the Cartagena Refinery (Reficar) and its modernization at the recent Congress of the Colombian Natural Gas Association (Naturgas), highlighting that despite the bad press, the project moves forward and is nearly 100% operational.

Ecopetrol’s (NYSE:EC) exports to the US dropped off at the end of 2015 according to the company’s latest financial report, matching a US trend to import less crude and derivatives.

The deadline set in September 2015 by the government and Farc to sign a final peace agreement – March 23^rd — passed this week without a full or even partial accord, but the government said the date was successful in that it sped up the process.

The president of the National Hydrocarbons Agency Mauricio de la Mora said that the entity is working to tender an offer of “multi-client” seismic activity to boost activity not just in Caribbean waters, but also in the waters of the Pacific.

A recent report from the Chamber of Oil Goods and Services (Campetrol) calls attention to the fact only one of every four drills in Colombia were in use in Colombia, and urged the government to do more to stimulate exploration.

A letter submitted to congress from the Finance Ministry (MinHacienda) detailing the government’s stake in Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) and another 29 state owned firms sparked alarms form the recently launched “United for Ecopetrol” as proof the government plans to privatize the NOC. The ministry said it is a routine and legally mandated letter submitted each year.