How much has Colombia’s armed conflict cost the country? A true number is for the most part impossible to calculate, but just on defense spending a recent study estimates that number to be at least CoP$220T (US$114B) just in the last 10 years.
The Association of Colombian Oil Engineers (Acipet) says that there is a deceleration occurring in the oil industry resulting from the saturation of investment and the price of crude internationally.
The economic model used to determine the price of fuel for the consumer is set to be a central theme for debate as Colombia moves into an election year, but several experts asked by the local press concur that the main refinery producer, Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) will continue producing fuel regardless.
Oil from a rupture along the Transandino Pipeline (OTA) on the Colombia-Ecuador border has leaked into the banks of the San Miguel river causing contamination and requiring intervention from Ecuadorian NOC Petroamazonas.
In December the Tauramena municipality will hold a public referendum to approve or reject nearby oil production in certain, named villages and now in Aguazul municipal leaders are looking to do the same and get the public to vote on Ecopetrol’s (NYSE:EC) Odisea 3D seismic exploration program.
A local activist and former politician has insisted authorities apply measures to limit tanker-truckers on main highways in Villavicencio Meta, demonstrating the context and need for more agreements on roads between the industry, local authorities and the community in general, like the one signed last week in Casanare.
The Casanare environmental management agency Corporinoquia sat in on a meeting in Yopal to discuss problems and conflicts and problems in the department between the community and oil producers.
The president of the Colombian Oil Engineers Association (ACIPET) says that an April decree to offer more flexibility for foreigners to work in Colombia has diminished the opportunities for national engineers in the oil industry.
Colombia’s oil industry has marked sustained growth over the last several years, but if the prospects of the industry are to continue into a bright future, more reserves must be discovered and added to its ever shortening supply looking forward.
An article in the local paper Noticiero del Llano quoting unnamed “ecologists” is calling on Ecopetrol to assume the social responsibility of exploration and production, and called on readers to voice concerns to a mobile unit of the NOC designed to receive complaints from the community.
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