Ecopetrol has been pushing its good corporate citizenship with a series of press releases on its spending in 2012. Environmental investments, local purchasing and local hiring have all been touched. While this may seem like ‘tooting its own horn’, we believe such a campaign is necessary for the industry as a whole, because of the negative opinions held by the press and certain politicians. From an Ecopetrol press release, translated and with comments by Hydrocarbons Colombia.
As reported by national radio station W Radio, Alberto Mariño, manager of Coviandes, the company developing the Bogotá-Villavicencio four-lane road, referred to the project designs and required investment. According to Mariño, some US$550M for the land purchase, labor, materials and insurance policies will be allocated. He said the projected was “largely” on time according to the project plan.
We have been concerned for some time that the general labor relations situation was deteriorating in the country. The first strike in twenty years at coal producer Cerrejon for us was a wake-up call that the situation was widening beyond the usual suspects (Ecopetrol, Oxy and subcontractors). Now the USO will participate in the “First Mining and Energy Encounter” next month with the goal to coordinate labor action against multinational companies in the sector.
As reported by Dinero, Ricardo Arias Mora, president of the National Savings Fund (FNA), announced that the entity will join with several oil companies to facilitate homeownership for some 9,000 oil workers in the fields Rubiales, Quifa and Pirirí in Puerto Gaitan, Meta department.
Every Monday we publish the Petroleum Workers’ Union’s (USO) latest complaints about the hydrocarbons industry’s treatment of its workers. To read their press releases, one would imagine slavery or the Gulag archipelago or some other Dickensian scenes from the past. Here is the international organization charged with protecting workers’ rights giving the country a pat on the back. From a Ministry of Labor press release, translated and with commentary by Hydrocarbons Colombia.
The oil and gas industry calls the region “Los Llanos” and it is a flat plane (llanos) extending to and beyond the border with Venezuela. But viewed ecologically it is part of the Orinoco basin, the great river that defines part of the border and eventually flows into the Atlantic Ocean on the eastern side of Venezuela. Five rivers flow through the Colombian Llanos and into the Orinoco including such well-known industry names as the Meta, the Arauca and the Guaviare. The economic potential of the region is huge from hydrocarbons to agriculture to rare earths. Pacific Rubiales, the ANDI (the Colombian businesspersons association) and Semana magazine recently convened a forum on the region’s future. From a Pacific Rubiales press release, translated and with commentary by Hydrocarbons Colombia.
The dispute between the USO and Oxy is grinding away. On the one hand, the USO continues to complain that management is not listening and on the other, holding out the olive branch to continue to extend the dialogues. Last week between a holiday on Monday and then the traditional Colombian Easter holiday from Wednesday noon, the negotiating teams no doubt did not accomplish very much.
As reported by Dinero, the Sustainable Integrated Management Report 2012 presented by Ecopetrol during its shareholders meeting was qualified, for the second year running, with an A+ (the highest rating) by Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), a sustainability reporting rating company.
The USO reports this week that workers at Reficar and with Oxy are getting closer to strikes, the union says because local management refuses to talk. In the Reficar case, the USO claims that executives from Bogota have contacted the union but Reficar management will not set up the mechanisms to start negotiating. In the case of Oxy workers in Arauca, the union has presented demands but the company will not budge.
It came as a tweet inviting contractors and providers to review the company’s Corporate Code on Conduct and Ethics. But Pacific makes it clear as early as page 7 that “the principles listed in this Code form part of your contractual agreement with Pacific Rubiales Energy and its subsidiaries”. Having been burned at least once by ethical lapses on the part of its contractors, the company does not want it to happen again.
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