The Ministry of Labor is looking to crack down on those presidents of community action committees (JACS) that charge community members in the areas of influence of oil facilities to have work with the industry.
The national government says that the National Hydrocarbons Agency (ANH) will open an office in Yopal, Casanare in 2015 to tighten community relations and ensure compliance from operators in nearby fields. Environmental concerns were cited as the motivation for the new strategy.
The government might still be holding onto expectations that daily oil production in Colombia from 2014-2024 will average 1.062mmbd, but the Colombian Petroleum Association (ACP) already has scaled down its expectations to a more conservative figure.
There was another tanker convoy burning this week and trends continued upward although incidents, in fact, went down to 43, still well above recent and long-term averages.
On August 23 the extension of the direct negotiation phase of collective bargaining talks between Ecopetrol and the USO comes to a close, and the union is promising strikes before the matter goes to a tribunal for resolution.
In one of his first interviews as the new Minister of Mines and Energy, Tomás González says that in order for communities to feel a “legitimate” benefit from oil activities near their homes, they must see the impact of royalties.
Some 56 villages in the Putumayo corridor from Puerto Vega-Teteyé have been protesting a plan to expand drilling in the area, arguing that they do not want oil infrastructure that will become a target of the Farc near their communities.
The head of the Farc, Rodrigo Londoño Echeverri, alias ‘Timochenko’ says that he does not anticipate an agreement in 2014, and maybe not in 2015, while negotiators in Havana prepare to start receiving groups of victims.
Pacific Rubiales Energy (TSX:PRE) said that its second quarter 2014 total production grew 17% year-over-year to reach a new record, as the firm added more barrels of light oil and tripled profits, when compared to last year. Company executives also assured that its dependence on Rubiales has fallen as other fields and sources kick in.
The Municipality of Yopal is promoting a change in tax laws that would allow it (and others) to levy a municipal industry and commerce tax on oil operator revenues. Currently they are exempt from the tax since they are already paying royalties based on their production.