Fabio Arjona Hincapié – a marine biologist, former vice-minister of Environment under Ernesto Samper, and until recently director of Conservación Internacional Colombia – was confirmed as de la Espriella’s minister for the Environment and Sustainable Development portfolio that will sit at the intersection of the new government’s hydrocarbons expansion agenda and its stated commitment to environmental protection.
More than one million Colombian families still rely on firewood or charcoal for cooking — among the most polluting and health-damaging combustion sources in daily domestic use — and Ecopetrol’s Gas Social program exists to close that gap one network connection at a time.
Ecopetrol has delivered 52,300 school kits to children, youth, and teachers in 31 municipalities across nine departments, as part of the company’s Education and Sports investment line aimed at strengthening school retention and easing the back-to-school financial burden for families in the company’s areas of operation.
Colombia’s contribution to the extractive industries transparency initiative EITI held a public webinar on June 19 bringing together more than 70 participants from government agencies, civil society organizations, academic institutions, and territorial communities to review progress on the upcoming EITI Colombia National Report 2023-2024 and discuss the broader governance agenda for the mining and hydrocarbons sector.
Deutsche Bank and Corficolombiana both published assessments on June 12 framing the same basic question ahead of Colombia’s June 21 presidential runoff: what comes after the vote, and how durable will any initial market optimism prove to be?
Ecopetrol and Parex Resources donated firefighting equipment to the volunteer fire brigades of San Miguel and Valle del Guamuez municipalities in Putumayo on June 12, under the Acuerdo Empresarial Putumayo, a joint social investment mechanism the two companies operate in the department. The combined investment exceeded CoP$25M.
The Petro administration has designated 1.5 million hectares of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta as a Renewable Natural Resources Reserve, barring new mining concessions and hydrocarbon exploration and production contracts across the entire area.
Vaca Muerta is already producing 597,300 bd from the Neuquén basin, representing two-thirds of Argentina’s national output of 885,300 bd — and Luis Barallat, BCG’s director for Iberia and South America, believes that is still early innings.
Parex Resources Colombia used an article in El Espectador to mark its track record under Colombia’s Works for Taxes mechanism — the scheme that allows companies to redirect a portion of their income tax obligations directly into public infrastructure projects in historically underserved regions.
A new CEPAL statistical report on tax collection across Latin America and the Caribbean through 2024 finds a region making incremental progress on revenue mobilization — but still structurally distant from developed-economy benchmarks, and dangerously exposed to commodity price swings in the countries that matter most.
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