News and AnalysIs for

Crude oil price benchmarks WTI and Brent are not identical so there is a gap. Some think the gap has some physical meaning. Others believe it is tautological: the consequence of different economic forces acting on each benchmark price.

With low international oil prices, practices that increase costs for companies like the use of intermediaries to place workers are even more damaging since it can be enough to make a project unprofitable.

The Minister of Labor Luis (Lucho) Garzon led a meeting on Wednesday with workers, company representatives and government officials to address to potential impact that labor cuts could have on the oil regions. This is a follow-on to an article we published yesterday.

State owned Turkish firm Turkish Petroleum International Company has received its environmental license from the National Environmental Licensing Agency (ANLA) to proceed with a project in Norte de Santander.

It is safe to say that Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) is confronting one of its toughest years in 2015, with a complex scenario both internally, as it searches for a new president, and externally, as the fall of oil prices cuts into its exploration budget and future revenues.

Already a number of wells have been shuttered for the low price of oil, prompting speculation on how the decline will impact the industry and communities in the short and mid term.

Minister of Labor Luis (Lucho) Garzon has noted the recent announcements of well closures and project cancelations and wants to find a way to prevent unemployment from increasing.

We are not yet plumbing new depths – prices have been lower even in this century, even since the founding of the ANH – but likewise there is little beyond perhaps wishful thinking that this is going to stop soon.

A number of recent announcements of closures of wells in Casanare communities like Maní, Trinidad and Aguazul due to the low price of oil has authorities worried that the impact to local hiring and social investment could wreak havoc on the department.

Oil pipelines could become a crucial element in today’s price scenario as companies, will be forced to find ways to lower their operational costs, something which pipelines could offer with greater efficiency than tankers.