News and AnalysIs for

The Chamber of Oil Goods and Services (Campetrol) has announced that the former Agricultural Minister Rubén Darío Lizarralde will take on a newly created executive president role as the organization looks to tackle an increasingly complicated scenario facing the industry.

The count jumped 12% this week to 46, above recent and long-term averages, but, except for a particularly bad incident, the increase was mostly Armed Forces activity.

A ruling of the State Council suspending a decree that allows the central government to overrule local governing bodies has brought the issue of public referenda against extractive activities back into the spotlight.

Colombia’s oil and gas sector is suffering from heightened pessimism among investors and lowered trust which could result in private firms abandoning plans or projects in Colombia if no change occurs said Lisa Viscidi, director for energy, climate change and extractive industries with Washington DC based Interamerican Dialogue.

The 2014-2018 collective bargaining agreement took 40 days of formal negotiation and 15 days to write, and has not yet been in effect for around two weeks, but already conflicts are brewing between Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) and its largest union the USO.

The 28^th round of talks finished at the end of last week, while a national forum for victims included commentary from Colombians displaced by the conflict and living around the world.

Readers will have noticed a number of articles this week and last week on fracking. We decided to keep track of the number of articles we have found and whether they are positive or negative.

The Minister of Environment Gabriel Vallejo gave one of his longest interviews yet, defended the government’s plan to allow fracking, and countered critics that questioned his environmental credentials in the ministerial role.

President Juan Manuel Santos has announced a series of changes to the approval process for environmental licenses that he says will cut the wait time down to five months but still ensure that the environment is protected.

Nearly four years after announcing the discovery, Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) has received the environmental license it needs to start more drilling at its Mago-1 well location near Puerto Gaitan, Meta.