President Juan Manuel Santos, in the heat of his contested re-election promised to restrict the flow tanker trucks on the roads of Huila, promising to ship oil via Ecuador, banning the tankers presence on Sundays and holidays after residents expressed their complaints.
The Minister of Mines and Energy (MinMinas) Amylkar Acosta paid a visit to the Casanare Department to outline an agreement and to dialogue, while the local authorities had plenty of questions and requests for the official to improve the situation in this oil producing region.
The 2014 Colombia Round is slated to start receiving bids this month, and the president of the National Hydrocarbons Agency (ANH) says everything is looking good so far. He also talks about the competition that the round faces globally to attract interested investors.
Both guerrilla kept up the pressure this week as incidents went up to 38, above recent and long-term averages.
There is growing interest in Colombia’s potential for offshore production, and there are four planned offshore exploration wells in Colombia’s Caribbean waters, but greater incentives are needed to boost this incipient industry.
The USO never shies from voicing a good conspiracy theory, but this week they ventured past Colombia’s border to denounce what they say is a plan by US, French and Saudi interests to bolster the international price of crude through support of the radical Islamist group ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant), and divide the region into separate colonies with the interests of the oil industry in mind.
The Empresa Energía de Bogotá (EEB) has bought a 7.78% stake in the Pacific Pipeline through subsidiary, Transportadora de Gas Internacional (TGI), after EEB paid US$880M to take its control of TGI from 68.05% to 99.97%.
The Ministry of Mines and Energy (MinMinas) says that international fuel prices and instability in Iraq have forced fuel prices at the pump upwards for July 2014, while diesel remains stable.
A convoy with nearly two dozen tankers full of crude were stopped on their way to Ecuador by the Farc and forced to open their valves. The tankers were following an alternative route that has been proposed as a safer option to shipping the crude via truck or pipeline across Colombia.
The peace process received words of support from some big names this week, from former world leaders to a multi-denominational group of religious leaders, but the security conditions needed on the ground to continue with the talks receives its fair amount of questions at home.