On November 1, 2012, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos addressed a summit of mayors of the departmental capitals. The president wanted to address the mayors’ main concerns so the whole speech touched on health, security and royalties. Below we translate the portion of the speech dealing with the latter topic. It is important for the hydrocarbons industry that royalties are well spent and give visibility to its contributions. From the President’s website. Extracted, translated and with commentary by Hydrocarbons Colombia.
The Colombian Congress has approved a CoP$17.7T (US$9.2B) royalty budget for the period 2013 – 2014. The Governing Committee (Comisión Rectora) approved this amount to be distributed to the various funds of the royalty system over the next two years. This was announced by MinHacienda, Mauricio Cárdenas, who highlighted the importance of the initiative for creating equity in Colombia. Cárdenas also said two efforts are being unified, the one of government through the Nation’s Budget and the one of regions through royalties, so as many projects can be done as possible, for the progress and prosperity the country seeks.
This morning the legal firm of Norton Rose and the Canada-Colombia Chamber of Commerce (CCCC) held a seminar on anti-corruption practices with special emphasis on the American Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the Canadian Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act and the recent Colombian anti-corruption act. A large number of extraction industry firms are members of the CCCC and this issue is always a concern in these sectors. Indeed the only company ever prosecuted in Canada under the act was an oil and gas firm.
The current Finance Minister and former Mines and Energy Minister, Mauricio Cardenas gives his evaluation of the new royalty system. The system has been theoretically in place since January but it really only got going in 2Q12. From a MinHacienda press release. Translated and with commentary by Hydrocarbons Colombia.
Pacific Rubiales receives a lot of criticism in the alternative press for its massive publicity campaign. Image advertising is seemingly everywhere and the company is the major sponsor of the National Soccer Team. Websites like La Silla Vacia, Kien y Ke or RazonPublica.com speculate that the publicity is an attempt to buy the mainstream media and whitewash what must be terrible things the company must be doing.
The Colombian Petroleum Association (ACP) has published a press release on the negative impacts of a number of laws initiated by Congress – which are not backed by the government – that seek to increase government take and give back to local communities part of what they lost in royalties. Translated and with commentary by Hydrocarbons Colombia.
The main road from the Llanos Basin to the central part of the country is only two lanes and extremely narrow at various points. Tanker trucks carrying crude from the fields and returning with naphtha for dilution clog up the roads. There have been accidents and some deaths. See our earlier article here. Work was supposed to have started on widening the most complicated portions but that is still generating controversy.
Eduardo Junguito had 15 minutes to address the ANH conference in Cartegena today. He used about 25 minutes and had material for an hour. Yet another player in the complex and overlapping responsibilities for community relations and the extractive industries, Junguito has an ambitious agenda that not all would agree with. Still there were some positive messages of intent even if practical demonstrations of implementation were lacking.
October 10, 2012
After a union leader told RCN Radio that recent riots in Puerto Gaitan that killed three people were because “Pacific Rubiales has not kept its commitments”, the company was forced to issue a statement that this was not true. The company’s explanation fits the facts better: that a policeman ran over and killed a small child, the community wanted to lynch him, his fellow policemen defended him and a riot broke out.
October 10, 2012
From a MinMinas press release. Translated and with commentary by Hydrocarbons Colombia
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