News and AnalysIs for

The Colombian Petroleum Association (ACP) has released a report on its members’ spending on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs, but budget cuts for social programs loom for 2016. These and other CSR related stories in our periodic summary.

The granting of an environmental license for production blocks in the north of the Caquetá Department has local authorities, communities and press sounding the alarm and now a committee has been formed to address production in the area.

Three decades ago the first barrel of crude was extracted from the Caño Limón well in Arauca, and a national paper traces the good, the bad and the terrible that oil production has brought to the department, and its role in the national industry.

The USO said that its presence has been critical to support community residents in Monterrey, Aguazul and Tauramena who are protesting Ecopetrol’s decision to eliminate transportation for contractor workers, which it says is another sign of the NOC using the oil price crisis as an excuse to weaken worker rights.

USO affiliated workers at the Barrancabermeja have put up the greatest resistance to Ecopetrol’s (NYSE:EC) cost cutting measures, with a continued run of protests and blockades affecting the area since mid-December. An unstructured dialogue continues for now.

Ecopetrol has unveiled a number of different road and small infrastructure projects, as well as a “bio-health park” and aqueduct. These and other Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) related stories in our periodic summary.

We have not published our ‘Fracker Tracker’ since early December when news of ExxonMobil’s (NYSE:XOM) application for permission to frack and the signing of an unconventional contract with ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) and Canacol (TSX:CNE) had pushed positive press reports to heights not seen for some time. However, this positive press has melted away as the graph shows.

The government’s sale of its stake in electrical energy generator Isagen shows that its strategy of selling off important national assets is moving forward, says the USO, warning that Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) will be the next on the list, so the union is calling for national protests.

While tankers are often the target of complaints from communities in oil producing regions, the ‘not in my backyard’ mentality is just as strong with pipelines, and the consequences of having the Transandino near the city of Tumaco, Nariño, clearly depicts why.

The service industry and members of the Colombian Chamber of Oil Goods and Services (Campetrol) have suffered over the last year, with 38 service firms filing for bankruptcy protection and 40,000 jobs lost. Its president Ruben Dario Lizarralde urged Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) to continue exploring for the good of the country.