News and AnalysIs for

Juan Carlo Echeverry spent his first day as president of Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) on Monday, April 6 speaking with the outgoing president Javier Gutiérrez, presiding over his first board of management meeting and touring the NOC’s headquarters in Bogotá.

Javier Gutierrez has officially stepped aside as the president of Ecopetrol, and in a last interview commented on the “not so low” tax rates paid by the industry and the structural situation which has pushed oil prices down.

Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) and Pacific Rubiales (TSX:PRE) are both looking north and making the upcoming concession round in Mexico one of their main targets looking forward. Both are included in the list of 39 firms pre-qualified for Round One.

A study from Wood Mackenzie found that Colombia was home to four of the largest oil discoveries in Latin America during 2014, including the largest one, which was Petrobras’ (NYSE:PBR) Orca, with 264mmboe.

Pacific Rubiales’ (TSE:PRE) recently inaugurated Puerto Bahia port project has been live for two weeks, and the firm is not concerned about the implications of the low oil price on its operations or the viability of the project.

Pacific Rubiales (TSX:PRE) president José Francisco Arata says that 2015 will be a tough year for the operator, but that the current woes faced by the company and its impact on its share price do not reflect its true value and potential.

Ecopetrol is well positioned to improve production at the Rubiales field, and even if it chooses another company to operate it, the NOC will only pay a per barrel tariff to the operator, outgoing Ecopetrol president Javier Gutiérrez Pemberthy said at the firm’s annual general shareholder’s assembly.

Current reserves mean that the domestic gas network should have supply for another 10 years says the president of gas distributor Promigas Antonio Celia.

Despite the well-documented glut of oil in the US – which has (depending on viewpoint) contributed or caused the dramatic fall in oil prices since mid-2014 – Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) actually increased its exports to the US in 4Q14.

The political forces that successfully swayed Ecopetrol’s (NYSE:EC) board to not renew the association contract with Pacific Rubiales (TSX:PRE) have moved on to the next step, that Ecopetrol operate the field directly, opening the door to the USO union to enter the field.