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Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) gave explanations as to why it would not sign an agreement with Casanare transportation companies that covered local hiring practices, which has been discussed with the NOC participation over the last two years. This and other press reports involving roadways and the oil industry

Through the Business Association for the Development of Orinoquia (Asorinoquia), regional government entities are looking to create public-private initiatives that would compensate for the lack of hydrocarbons royalties and finance needed infrastructure investments.

We thought that Llanos was appearing more frequently as a top source of security incidents in our weekly summary so we looked at the department of Meta, the largest and most important department for oil production in Colombia.

China’s role as the world’s leader in the consumption of raw materials and its growing interest in the Latin American energy and commodities sectors make Colombia an attractive partner, but today the Asian nation sees Colombia as only a coffee maker, says an expert on China-Latin American relations.

Ecopetrol says that it has been busy in Barrancabermeja where it says it invests CoP$206B (US$107.4M) annually into Corporate Social Responsibility Projects (CSR). That and other CSR programs from Equion, Parex and more.

Repair work on the Caño Limon- Coveñas Pipeline has finally been completed after spending more than two months out of service after successive pipeline bombings and a conflict with the U´WA indigenous group that blocked repair crews.

The director of the Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Laws of the Dundee University in the UK, Peter Cameron, visited Colombia to meet with members of the oil, and said that the industry needs more than just a few supermajors to develop its off shore potential.

The first round of the Colombian elections have come to an end and the results was a win for the Uribist candidate Oscar Ivan Zuluaga over the incumbent President Juan Manuel Santos. (Uribism and Uribists are followers of ex-President Alvaro Uribe’s Democratic Center Party.)

Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) released US$2B in bonds last week which were met with high demand from the market, creating a demand worth more than five times the amount the NOC looked to obtain, or US$10B.

The USO said that it will include the use of outsourced labor as an agenda item in the upcoming collective bargaining agreement process with Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) and that the topic is already on the table in discussions in Cartagena.