The president of the National Federation of Palm Oil Growers (Fedepalma), Jens Mesa, said a recent resolution from the Ministry of Mines and Energy to fix the price to the biofuel producer is “straight out of a Chavista court”.
A high court ruling has impeded efforts from several municipalities to use a public referendum as a tool against allowing nearby oil production. Local leaders are taking different readings of the ruling.
The General Royalty System (SGR) has been in place for a little more than a year and already there is a brewing discussion as to the effectiveness in the new program, which has oil producing regions up in arms and calling for change.
The Ministry of Mines and Energy (MinMinas) issued a statement in which it says that the regasification plant awarded to a consortium headed by Promigas continues forward, and that despite reports saying otherwise, neither it nor the Inspector General has the authority to halt such a project.
The president of the board of directors of the National Hydrocarbons Agency, Alberto Montoya Puyana has resigned from his position, criticizing the policies of President Juan Manuel Santos, which he says have “de-institutionalized” the country.
Colombia’s elections for the Chamber and Senate resulted in nearly balanced figures for the major parties, setting up the need for considerable horse-trading to get legislation passed after the 20th of July when the new Congress starts work.
The USO has a new conspiracy theory and so a new line of accusations against Pacific Rubiales Energy (TSX:PRE). The union is now saying that the firm is looking to take over the Cartagena Refinery (Reficar) project and staff it with Venezuelans.
Incidents near areas of interest to the oil and gas industry were up sharply at 45 above recent and long-term averages. Non-Armed Forces-reported incidents were above average both in percentage and absolute terms. This is our indicator of increased guerrilla-initiated activity. Correspondingly, our 4-week Moving Average incident count was up at 37.5 and the 52 week average was also up slightly at 31.2 incidents per week.
Lately Ecopetrol has received much criticism for the slowness of refinery upgrades in Cartagena and Barrancabermeja. The harder question may be why it is investing at all in this business.
The Inspector General’s (IG) office and the Ministry of Mines and Energy (MinMinas) have halted the awarding of a contract to a consortium led by Promigas to build a regasification plant.