News and AnalysIs for

Nunchía authorities agreed to expedite the disbursement of CoP$1B (US$380,000) for electrification and gas coverage expansion from the Bicentennial Pipeline while the ANH and UN Development Program have started workshops to improve community relationships with the industry. These and other stories on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in our periodic summary.

Parex Resources (TSX:PXT) posted strong production gains in 2014 through acquisitions and organic growth, hitting 22,526boed average for the year, a 42% increase over 2013. However struck by the fall in world oil prices, the company reported a net loss for the year of US$108.8M although more than 100% of this was due to a non-cash write down of assets in Colombia and Trinidad.

Incident counts went up significantly this week to 33 but qualitatively we are still in the same ‘quieter’ period with respect to guerrilla-initiated activities.

The Casanare administrative court will inspect Mate Marrano wetlands after The National Environmental Licensing Agency (ANLA) did not show for a hearing, and authorities say that thus far Paz de Ariporo is not suffering from drought conditions like last year. These and other environmental stories in our periodic summary.

Pacific Rubiales (TSX:PRE) delivered a proposal which would keep it in the Rubiales field following the end of its association contract, offering a give and take to Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) based on its ability to improve secondary recovery, expand the number of wells and implement new technologies.

In the National Infrastructure Congress scheduled for November of this year the government will present a strategy to rely on multimodal transportation that puts more emphasis on alternatives to trucks such as trains or rivers, says the president of the Colombian Infrastructure Chamber (CCI) Juan Martín Caicedo.

Ecopetrol’s (NYSE:EC) board of directors voted in the government’s official candidate for the role of company president. Former Finance Minister Juan Carlos Echeverry takes the wheel of the NOC at one of its most complex moments.

With the naming of former Santos Finance Minister Juan Carlos Echeverry as the new president of Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC), the government planning to convert the NOC into a handy cash box to meet its immediate needs warned USO president Edwin Castaño.

A report of the Agustín Codazzi Geographical Institute (IGAC), which oversees political and land borders says there are 84 “questionable borders”, many of them falling in producing regions. Of these 20 will be prioritized in 2015 for clarification.

The graph shows Ecopetrol’s attributed Net Income to its Refining and Petrochemicals line of business for the full year 2014 and prior years. The good news is that things are not as bad as last year. The bad news is fairly obvious: it still lost nearly US$450M.