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Editor’s Note: Jaime Checa is one of Colombia’s most respected geophysicists. When he speaks the industry listens. Checa is passionate about his profession, his industry and his country.

Brent finished the month of April, 2016 at US$47.37 and briefly was even over US$48 during Friday’s trading. Prices are now back to where they were in late October.

While the national and local governments continue to roll out the natural gas network, there are still many municipalities functioning with propane, which suffers from higher prices and an informal distribution network. No quick solution is in sight.

Ecopetrol’s (NYSE:EC) former president Javier Gutiérrez defended his actions involving the Cartagena Refinery (Reficar) while at the helm of the NOC, and said without the controls he enacted, the cost could have been worse.

GasIn mid-October of last year, we published an article where Naturgas president, Eduardo Pizano promised an additional 130mmcfd of gas would become available in 1Q16. It might have become available but it did not translate into additional demand.

President Juan Manuel Santos paid a visit to Ecuador to deliver aid to the victims of the recent earthquake, and confirmed that the peace negotiations with the ELN would start there.

Luis Gilberto Murillo has been named by President Juan Manuel Santos as the new Ministry of Environment. What will the former governor of Chocó and a mining engineer with formal training in the USSR bring to this embattled position?

USO president Cézar Loza warned that Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) president Juan Carlos Echeverry and its board of directors have a plan to dismember the NOC and sell it off like the government did with energy producer Isagén.

Before the controversy surrounding the environmental license of Hupecol in La Macarena emerged Colombia had already received global attention for being a leader in the number of environmentally related conflicts, second only to India.

The ELN guerrilla has an enormous debt with Colombians due to the damage to the environment from its continued attacks over the years, said the government’s lead negotiator in talks with the group, Frank Pearl.