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The USO said that Ecopetrol’s (NYSE:EC) policies, which include farm-out agreements for the NOC’s smaller fields, have already negatively affected the Casanare department.

Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) environment chief for Middle Magdalena and Catatumbo Julia Celina Angulo Díaz said that the NOC will be recognized by the United Nations Development Program in December for its social work in the region.

With the fall in oil prices specialized workers like oil engineers and general employees originally attracted to better salaries in the oil industry have suffered, creating added tension towards foreign workers and there is no clear alternative in sight.

Industry and community representatives complain about how poor road quality in Caquetá affects business, meanwhile a special hearing will be held to decide if Pacific E&P (TSX:PRE) is responsible for damage on the Corocoro-Cravo Norte highway. These and other stories in our periodic roundup of road-related issues.

“This government does not believe in the agriculture sector as a motor of development” said that executive president of the Colombian Association of Oil Goods and Services (Campetrol) Rubén Darío Lizarralde, an area where the association is looking to lessen the economic dependence on the oil industry.

The USO and Mansarovar Energy have reached a tentative agreement, thanks to the intervention of the Ministry of Labor and ended an ongoing strike.

The Meta governor Alan Jara says he has told the national government that the OCAD controlling bodies which approve royalty projects “continue to be a disaster and a centralist and inefficient model”.

Delegates from the Interior Ministry (MinInterior) left the comforts of Bogotá behind to meet with local authorities and members of the oil industry in Middle Magadalena as part of a plan to develop a strategy to confront social conflict, and also gave attention to contraband fuel on the border with Venezuela.

In Monterrey, commitments to build a new hospital go unfulfilled, meanwhile Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) supports small farmers in Villavicencio. These and other stories on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in our periodic summary.

After much local fanfare to call for a modernization of the Barrancabermeja Refinery, Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) reaffirmed that it would enact projects in stages to improve the facilities.