The government has received substantial political pressure to lower fuel prices, but Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) says it will continue to produce fuels despite a price that cuts into their margins and in turn, their ability to invest.
The drought in Casanare continues to draw headlines even if rains have reached the region. Relating oil production to the problem has become a convenient fact for the anti-oil lobby.
Senator Martiza Martínez, a regular critic of the oil industry in Colombia’s senate, says that oil companies should stop receiving tax benefits due to the damage she says that exploration and production activities do to the environment, and that a new “green tax” should be created as well.
The USO reacted to news that Pacific Rubiales (TSX:PRE) and Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) met to discuss the STAR secondary recovery project accusing PRE of poor management of the project and called for the NOC to not renew the production contract with the Canadian firm.
Members of the U´WA indigenous community finally met on April 25th to discuss an agreement that would allow repair crews in to fix the damaged Caño Limon – Coveñas pipeline but no agreement was reached.
Incidents near areas of interest to the oil and gas industry were down to 36, at recent but above long-term averages. Non-Armed-Forces-reported incidents were slightly above average in percentage terms and in absolute terms. This is our indicator of increased guerrilla-initiated activity. Our 4-week Moving Average incident count was down correspondingly at 36.0 and the 52 week average was stable at 31.3 incidents per week.
The focus of Colombia’s government and business sector on exporting hydrocarbons and fuels has hurt the advances of the manufacturing industry as the country focuses on extracting commodities instead of adding value to raw materials says a research report.
The Casanare wing of the Colombian Air Force is leading a joint public service campaign with the Army’s 8th Division and oil producer Equion to combat abuses and attacks of pipelines, focusing on the area near the Bicentennial and Caño Limón- Coveñas infrastructure.
President Juan Manuel Santos has a thin line to walk, saying on one hand that a cease fire with the Farc is out of the question and that the government will not let down its offensive posture, but at the same time saying he “would think twice” before ordering an attack on a Farc leader.
As we have reported previously, the mayor of Monterrey, Casanare had the population whipped up to vote in an anti-oil referendum this coming Sunday. Now Ecopetrol has succeeded in having the vote blocked while judges consider the constitutionality of such a referendum.
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