News and AnalysIs for

Local news site NoticiasdeVillavicencio.com reports that inhabitants of the municipality of Cumaral (Meta) denounced that cracks in the area’s mountains have appeared due to oil companies’ seismic work.. The environment secretary of Villavicencio, Nelson Vivas Mora, said it is important to protect the rights and interests of the Cumaral residents.

In an interview with Cali newspaper El Pais, the economist Salomon Kalmanovitz spoke about, among other things, the recent tax reform, mining and oil. According Kalmanovitz the reform was not made in depth. He said: “It was mostly tax cuts and the increase was a congressional initiative and not of the government: a one point in the income tax rate from 33 to 34%”.

Last Friday, January 18, 2013 MinMinas Federico Renjifo toured Meta speaking with local inhabitants, mayors and visiting Ecopetrol projects. We thought it interesting very relevant for its comments on environmental and community management. From a MinMinas press release, translated and with commentary by Hydrocarbons Colombia.

It was never an absolute cease fire. Colombia’s ombudsman (“Defensor del Pueblo”) reported 57 separate violations (see for example this RCN TV report) and the MinDefensa never stopped saying that the Farc continued to operate, sometimes through third-parties like criminal gangs or the country’s other major guerrilla group, the ELN. This latter qualification gave President Juan Manuel Santos leave to say the Farc had complied which perhaps was good diplomacy but we doubt even he believes that.

The truce ended as it started: blowing up the TransAndino pipeline.

According Leónidas Narváez Morales, Invías CEO, as told to W Radio, US$40.5M will be allocated for the tertiary road network of the Antioquia, Norte de Santander, Cundinamarca and Santander departments. The disbursement needs permission of the National Planning Department (DNP).

The USO is back from vacation as well and so things heated up. Perhaps the biggest news is of labor strife at the country’s largest coal mine Cerrejon, news which also made the national media. It is news (and relevant for us to report although not strictly about oil and gas) because Cerrejon has always been an exemplary company with a strong Corporate Social Responsibility program and so having labor strife is a surprise.

Incidents were up 47% this week to 50, a level not seen since late November. This sent our 4-week Moving Average up 20% and it now sits at 33 incidents per week although still down from a peak of 58 back in October.

In an earlier article, we presented MinAmbiente’s plan to reform the regional water management authorities known as CARs. This MinAmbiente press release says the timetable for congressional approval will depend on the prior consultation period. It is remarkable to see the Ministry thought a separate press release was necessary even though the need for prior consultation was mentioned in the original press release. We think it relevant because MinAmbiente and the Interior Ministry are planning new prior consultation legislation in the next congressional session (which runs from March to July). These activities and press releases are part of a socialization process to get the legislation through Congress more easily. Translated and with commentary by Hydrocarbons Colombia.

National business newspaper Portafolio reports that the companies Abocol, Compas and Saam will partner to invest US$45M in the Buenavista Port of Cartagena. The port, which has a capacity of 8,000 metric tons of cargo, is currently under the administration of Puerto Buenavista SA. The investment will be used to expand the wharf of 211 meters long, to improve infrastructure and to provide it with equipment to improve its performance quality.

Frequent readers of our monthly report will be familiar with our challenges in getting timely, consistent information from the National Environmental Licensing Agency (ANLA).