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This rather succinct but perhaps unpleasant phrase came from an unidentified French cabinet minister, quoted in a The Telegraph article on Great Britain’s broken infrastructure planning process. It seems Colombia’s peers also have great problems with prior consultation and no good solutions.

The Colombian Chamber of Goods and Services for Oil, Gas, and Energy (Campetrol) has expressed its concern regarding the escalating roadblocks and mobility restrictions on the country’s highways.

One of the most frustrating aspects of working in the Colombian countryside is the unclear boundaries of “prior consultation”. The constitution and international agreements require ethnic minorities to be consulted on issues that affect them – like infrastructure or resource development – but Congress has never dared to pass a law that regulates what this means. This is partially because such a law would itself have to be consulted before passage and there is a reasonable expectation that the affected minorities prefer the current ambiguity. Without a legal framework, work has progressed based on decrees and administrative procedures. Recently, the State Council nullified one of the fundamental decrees. The team at Brigard Urrutia wrote an opinion on the implications for oil and gas companies.

In a bid to contribute to the reconstruction of social fabric and improve living conditions in municipalities hardest hit by armed conflict and poverty, the Colombian Agency for Territorial Renewal (ART) has extended an invitation to the nation’s companies.

Campetrol, with information from the ANH, published the royalty collection in 2022 and the estimated figure for the first quarter of this year.

The government has approved a large investment for OCAP Paz projects.

The Ministry of Mines and Energy (MinEnergia) inaugurated social projects funded by royalties.

I have been sitting on this story since late May, not knowing whether to use it or where to use it. Technically, it is an energy-related story and so I should put it in ePowerColombia (ePC). But we deal with social conflict issues more in Hydrocarbons Colombia so it seems right to address the issue here.

Cab drivers across the country are preparing to stage a strike because of what they perceive as a lack of government attention to their concerns.

USO’s César Loza stressed the need for new contracts to continue the exploration and production of hydrocarbons in the country.