Colombians will not see a drop in prices at the pump for gasoline and diesel since politicians will tack on excess taxes to compete for lost oil fiscal revenue, which the union says is illegal.
Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) announced hiring trends of its contractors over the last three months, and said that of the nearly 30,000 posts generated, 90% of them went to local labor.
A constitutional reform stalls in the Senate, while the number of critics of the royalty system in Colombia’s congress grows, with a number of lawmakers taking a harsher tone against the national government. These and other royalty related stories in our periodic summary.
The Labor Ministry (MinTrabajo) has published a resolution that defines the list of municipalities where special requirements for local hiring will be implemented through a decree published in October.
Finding skilled laborers with advanced studies in areas that benefit the mining and energy sector remains a challenge, despite improvements at the university level in specialized degree programs, says a press report.
Ecopetrol’s (NYSE:EC) dragging of its feet on the modernization of the Barrancabermeja Refinery has put not just the city’s economy on hold, but stunted development in the region, says the thesis of a Spanish researcher.
The USO said that they made visits to the Rubiales and Caño Sur fields and have found “possible” evidence of a “crude cartel” that the uinon claims is selling contraband crude that goes unreported to authorities.
Over the last weekend delegates from 21 municipalities in the southeastern section of Tolima met to discuss the impact of seismic exploration and production activities in the area, which the communities say are causing “irreversible environmental” impacts.
Parex has encountered press resistance to its “Rumba” exploration project in Llanos 26, while NGO’s have nearly received their goal of on-line signatures for a petition to support anti-fracking measures, and an armadillo conservation program shows results. These and other environmental stories in our routine summary.
Supporters of prior consultation processes held a debate in Colombia’s senate, questioning why ministers and the President Juan Manuel Santos himself have “demonized” the process as being solely a way for communities to take advantage of projects taking place near their borders.