Industry leaders grumbled in the corridors about ministerial keynotes at the kickoff of the most important conference of the year but we really could not have expected anything different. In fact, some reading between the lines shows that they have got some of the messages but want the industry to listen some of theirs.
The arrival of now Senator, once President Alvaro Uribe to the Colombian congress, along with his fellow Centro Democratico colleagues has given rise to a much more critical voice in the lawmaking body pointing straight at the peace process. And the new found opposition has come with its own backlash from those supporting the current administration.
Pacific Rubiales Energy (TSX:PRE) and the Minister of Mines and Energy Amylkar Acosta clarified that its STAR secondary recovery project has been suspended, but not cancelled altogether, and the post-pilot study will determine its future.
GasThe Bolsa Mercantil de Colombia (BMC) has been awarded a five year contract to administer the transactions and prices of natural gas, which its president Iván Arroyave says will bring greater transparency and formality into gas transactions and the pricing established in the market.
The 2014 Round of auctions is over and the Colombian government is all smiles (at least in public) with 26 of 95 blocks assigned. Unlike the previous round, all the onshore winners are companies already doing business in Colombia.
After a long awaited meeting of Ecopetrol’s (NYSE:EC) board of directors to discuss the use of Pacific Rubiales’s STAR secondary recovery technology, the companies issued a somber news release that says the pilot in Quifa will not continue. It would appear that the technology’s prospects are null for the Rubiales field, although neither are saying that yet.
Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) and the Bicentennial Pipeline both have news regarding Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the Arauca department, while elsewhere local residents, sometimes in groups as small as 25, demand more local hiring. These and other stories in our regular review of CSR news.
A national TV station has gotten hold of a report issued to the Attorney General Eduardo Montealegre that claims that the oil industry is responsible for the drought in Paz de Ariporo, Casanare earlier this year that led to the widespread deaths of domestic and wild animals.
The uncertainty surrounding the future of Colombia’s largest producing field, Rubiales, and the association contract between Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) and Pacific Rubiales (TSX:PRE), has workers currently assigned in the UTEN union with the later firm demanding more clarity about their future.
The Colombian Petroleum Association (ACP) will be led by a new president, Francisco José Lloreda Mesa, starting in August. Lloreda repaces Alejandro Martínez, who has stepped down after working for the association for the last 20 years.
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