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A 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.

While 2013 marked a continued transition to the new royalty system and a year of approving projects using these funds and adaptation, 2014 will be the year of execution and seeing the money at work, says the director of the National Planning Department (DNP) Tatyana Orozco de la Cruz.

A corruption scandal involving a pair of US former PetroTiger executives who paid an now ex-Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) engineer more than US$300,000 to win a nearly US$50M contract has rattled Colombia’s oil industry, and the Ministry of Mines and Energy (MinMinas) issued a thorough release in which it establishes the engineer was working as a rogue and that the NOC is another victim.

Following up on a pilot program to subsidies the purchase of gas in cylinder the Ministry of Mines and Energy (MinMinas) says that the subsidies are ready to be claimed by for those who have qualified for the program in select municipalities.

Talisman Energy (NYSE:TLM) is planning to invest US$300M in its operations in Colombia, with an eye on developing identified reserves in the Llanos Orientales CPO-9 and CPE-6 blocks.

The USO has launched into a sustained campaign calling for the release of several members detained for alleged public order crimes during the end of 2013. The union will hold a rally at the headquarters of Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) and accuses the oil sector, led by Pacific Rubiales (TSX:PRE), of targeting its organization.

The Ministry of Mines and Energy (MinMinas) issued a policy statement in which it has promised technical and procedural details on how it will regulate the exploration and production of unconventional resources over the next six months.

Incidents near areas of interest to the oil and gas industry were up this week at 31 above recent and but below long-term averages. We found no non-Armed Forces reported events. This is our indicator of increased guerrilla-initiated activity. Our 4-week Moving Average incident count was up at 25.5 and the 52 week average was unchanged at 32.7 incidents per week.

Although the Farc continues to threaten that they will break their unilateral truce if the Armed Forces keep harassing them, this was a quiet week. The overall count decreased to 20 this week, below recent and long-term averages.

Canada’s Pacific Rubiales Energy (TSX:PRE) looked to convince the market that it has a bright future past the looming decline of its flagship and namesake field, Rubiales, and has a plan to cash in on its mid-stream assets to convince a skeptical equity market.