The opposition to fracking in Colombia has been simmering for some time, but reached a new level last week after Santander’s Departmental Assembly unanimously voted against the technique in their territory.
A work team of experts from the National Hydrocarbons Agency (ANH) attended the Cesar Department Assembly to encourage dialogue and address concerns from local authorities.
The first warnings that Ecopetrol’s (NYSE:EC) honeymoon after taking over the Rubiales field could be coming to a close have emerged. Community groups are complaining that few of the NOC’s contractors have socialized their projects with locals, and want a greater focus on local hiring.
The Minister of Finance (MinHacienda) Mauricio Cárdenas has his eyes on royalty savings, and is urging lawmakers to pass a bill that would allow the government to use the CoP$10T (US$3.25B) that had been set aside from royalty payments. This and other royalty-related stories in our periodic summary.
The Santander Departmental Assembly voted to reject fracking techniques and the USO was there to mark the event.
Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) and the national government reached an agreement with the U’wa indigious community which allowed NOC personnel to restart and secure the Gibraltar Gas plant after weeks of U’wa occupation.
In Yaguará, Huila, Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) insists that it has hired 100% of its unskilled labor locally and 30% of skilled labor, but individuals in the community have maintained blockades affecting five wells for nearly two months.
The International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) issued a report blasting the environmental and social impact which it alleges Pacific E&P has caused in Meta, and it was picked up in national media.
The explosive growth of blockades, protests and social conflicts has a direct impact on the finances of the regions responsible for them, and a recent study from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) sought to quantify how much these conflicts are costing.
The government supplied more than CoP$12.723B (US$4.1M) to eight municipalities in the Cesar Department as production incentives for social or development projects. This and other Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) related stories in our periodic summary.
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