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The Minister of Mines and Energy (MinMinas) Amylkar Acosta Medina said that mining and energy companies can only make their projects viable by earning a “social license”, that is, respect with the local community through social impact and responsibility actions.

Incidents near areas of interest to the oil and gas industry were up significantly this week at 47, the highest level since early March. Non-Armed Forces-reported incidents were above average in absolute terms but below average as a percentage of the total. This is our indicator of increased guerrilla-initiated activity. Our 4-week Moving Average incident count was up at 28.8 and the 52 week average was actually down slightly but essentially unchanged at 32.6 incidents per week.

This week marks the start of a critical phase for the peace talks in Havana, Cuba. Save four incidents, the Farc kept their word on a month long truce over the holidays, which came to a close on January 15th. Meanwhile next Monday, January 20 the first round of 2014 gets moving, and time is running out.

The general manager of EAAV, the sewage and aqueduct company of Villavicencio Hector Castro says that seismic exploration near the aqueduct’s intake has the potential to collapse the infrastructure.

Naturgas, the Colombian association that represents the natural gas value chain from producers to distributors says the country has reserves for 14 to 15.7 years of demand.

In the Huila Department local highway police figures have found a sharp increase in the number of accidents involving tanker-trucks. In 2012 there were only three such accidents reported, while in 2013 that number spiked to 19, more than six times greater.

We were offered an opportunity to interview PetroTiger board chairman, Mauricio Camargo who wanted to give the company’s position on the case of former executives accused in the US of bribing a now ex-Ecopetrol employee.

Gran Tierra Energy (NYSE:GTE) will invest US$243M into its operations in Colombia, which amounts more than half of its planned investment for 2014 across all of its operations. The investment will primarily go towards 12 wells

Communities and CSRA recurring topic, the Minister of Mines and Energy (MinMinas), Amylkar Acosta Media said that advances in training facilities in Meta will mean oil companies no longer have a valid excuse to not hire labor from the local communities.

Following elections last November, the USO has a new president, Edwin Castaño Monsalve, who replaced Rodolfo Vecinos as the head of the union’s national leadership. Castaño looks to expand the USO’s reach towards sub-contracted workers and like his predecessor, has his sights set on Pacific Rubiales (TXS:PRE).