The USO unloaded against the manager of the Barrancabermeja Refinery Orlando Díaz Montoya and alleged that the refinery has lost a large sum of investment due to poor planning, the hiring of foreign workers, and other costly errors.
Senator Maritza Martínez has cited several ministers, including the Ministry of Mines and Energy, to a debate to analyze the options for Colombia’s hard-hit oil producing regions, which have seen a serious loss of jobs and investment following the drop in oil prices.
The Murui people of the Monai de Jitoma community in the Puerto Leguizamo Municipality say they will not support an oil exploration project and argued so in a recent prior consultation hearing, but the operator says it will still move forward with the project as their approval was not an obligation. What happens next?
A study from Ipsos and FTI Consulting showed that in Colombia’s private business sector, hydrocarbons, mining and energy firms were deemed to be those with the greatest amount of challenges facing their reputation.
Equion Energy received accolades for a program in which it hired demobilized combatants as part of a transitional initiative. This and other Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) related news in our periodic summary.
The USO said that the new Labor Minister Clara López will allow for a dialogue between the ministry and the union to systematically discuss worker issues.
The Meta Governor Marcela Amaya insisted that the department must shift its economic pillars away from oil and instead focus on tourism and agriculture. She formed a special committee to study employment.
In Orito, Cartagena, Yopal and Puerto Gaitán protests and conflicts over local hiring have escalated as jobs with the oil industry shrink.
USO president Cesar Loza participated in the recent debate in Colombia’s senate on the overruns suffered in the Cartagena Refinery (Reficar), and warned again that there is an alleged plot to privatize Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC).
A congressional representative from Caquetá allege that with growing E&P activity, the oil industry has intimidated the local population into accepting its presence and taken advantage of the unmet needs of the community to gain traction for potentially damaging projects.
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