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.
Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) has reiterated its call for dialogue at the Gibraltar gas plant, and that the U’wa community is putting itself and the installation at risk, so the NOC has brought in personnel to secure the facility. It insists that there are no public forces present, although local press reports contradict this.
A conflict between Ecopetrol’s (NYSE:EC) subsidiary Hocol with an indigenous community in Ortega, Tolima has stretched for more than eight months and shows no signs of improvement. Now the municipality is warning it has no resources for public services as a result.
The president of Equion, María Victoria Riaño, said that the main problem facing the company today is “civil disorder” at the national level, affecting investment and company results, fueled by a lack of clear rules.
The government and striking truckers signed an agreement last Friday to end a violent and costly 45 day strike, which affected various other economic sectors. Now the first details of the agreement have started to reach press
The government has rejected the takeover of the Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) Gibraltar gas plant by the U´wa indigenous people in Norte de Santander, but ruled out taking it back by force until it has exhausted all other options.
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