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Showcased as one of the strategies to mitigate the impact of the fall in oil prices on producing regions, oil firms, in conjunction with the Canadian government, have invested in seven initiatives that generate opportunities for the agribusiness worth a total of US$76.2M.

President Juan Manuel Santos shook up his team with a clear eye on the peace talks in Havana, bringing in the current ambassador to the US Luis Carlos Villegas, who will replace Juan Carlos Pinzón as the Defense Minister. Meanwhile, Pinzón will take Villegas’ place as the US ambassador.

Ecopetrol’s (NYSE:EC) transport and logistics spin off Cenit saw an increase in its transported volume in 2014 despite standing out as one of the guerrilla’s favorite targets in the same year.

The president of oil & gas E&P firm Vetra Humberto Calderón Berti gave a rare press interview and said that the Llanos and Putumayo offer much in terms of prospectively, but the lack of infrastructure, high costs and public order issues represent the largest obstacles.

Despite a weakening of credit indicators for the oil industry and a combined debt of nearly CoP$7T, Colombia’s Central Bank has said that the financial sector is not at any risk due to the potential of unpaid obligations.

Ingecoleos is sanctioned for poor oil waste treatment practices in Aguazul while a mysterious yellow gas at the Barrancabermeja refinery raises concerns. These and other environmental stories in our periodic summary.

MinMinas asked for comments on its 2015 action plan but gave the public only two business days to do so. We were surprised by the distribution of importance but maybe we should not have been.

Ecopetrol invests in Putumayo, Norte de Santander while the Cartagena Refinery (Reficar) was accepted into the Global Compact. These and other stories on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in our periodic summary.

Incident counts were down to 22 as were non-Armed Forces reported incidents but we do not like the qualitative feel of what is happening.

At the end of November 2014, reports surfaced that the Cartagena Refinery would be functional in January 2015 and see its commercial launch in August 2015. But in Ecopetrol’s (NYSE:EC) latest earning results, management said that once again, that timeframe will be pushed back.