The headline on Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) results was that it made money while the rest of the industry lost. Inside Colombia, the comparison is unfair because it has no rivals with the same breadth and as the above graph shows, the Transport sector save the day.
The battle over oil prices is a battle over production with Saudi Arabia saying it wants to regain US market share lost to higher-cost shale oil. But that is light oil and US refineries still need a significant supply of heavy crude due to the configuration of their plants. The graph shows that the US represents an increasing share of Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) exports, at least over the last six quarters.
The decision by the Ministry of Mines of Energy (MinMinas) to modify the formula used to figure natural gas prices on the Caribbean Coast has left few content. Proponents of the change now want more action, the gas industry says it threatens investment and observers comment on how it impacts long term projects.
Despite signs of advances over the second half of this year, regulations for how to proceed with the production of Coal Bed Methane (CBM) are still not ready, although the government says it is working intensely to address the issue.
An absence of exploratory results from the hydrocarbons industry is likely to extend until 2017 warns the National Association of Financial Institutions (ANIF), and Ecopetrol’s (NYSE:EC) results will continue to suffer despite production increases, representing a loss of between 1-2% of the GDP.
ANH President Mauricio de la Mora was practically exuberant at a ceremony in the ANH’s offices on Wednesday. And why not? Canacol (TSX:CNE) and ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) were signing the agency’s first additional unconventional contract and victory had been snatched from the jaws of defeat.
The National Planning Department (DNP) has formalized modifications to the General Royalty System (SGR) and published a statement that outlines the changes and the rational for making them.
Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) held a shareholders meeting in Medellín and said that it would strengthen its exploration activities abroad, setting an investment goal per year of US$1.25B on average, destined for the Gulf of Mexico, Peru, Brazil and Colombia’s offshore blocks.
The Minister of Mines and Energy Tomás González said the government has agreed to link the natural gas price for the Caribbean coast to the WTI crude oil price index and to start infrastructure work to connect the region. Meanwhile the Colombian Petroleum Association (ACP) blasted the pricing modifications as a change of the rules, and questioned what would happen when WTI rises again.
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