News and AnalysIs for

This Friday, January 31 Pacific Rubiales (TSX:PRE) and Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) will meet to review the future of the production contract on the Rubiales field, which is set to expire in May 2016 and has been a lightning rod for political grandstanding in the last few months.

A Bloomberg article, press releases by Pacific Rubiales (TSX:PRE) and Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) and radio appearances by members of Colombia’s comptroller’s office took PRE on a rollercoaster. At one point on Monday it was down nearly 10% before recovering on somewhat on Tuesday and finishing Wednesday only a little more than 1% down.

Colombia’s association of transportation firms Asecarga has accused Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) of awarding contracts to select firms and not holding transparent, open processes to select a contractor. The association has sent a formal request to the nation’s inspector general Alejandro Ordóñez to investigate the matter.

Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) has suspended its NFE Backland project, involving a new well in the Cupiagua field, after it received ‘undue pressure’ from the community over local hiring and its social investment, which the NOC says exceeded expectations.

There was lots of speculation leading up to the Ecopetrol (NYSE:ECP) Special Assembly today. However it was anticlimactic in the final result.

We were offered an opportunity to interview PetroTiger board chairman, Mauricio Camargo who wanted to give the company’s position on the case of former executives accused in the US of bribing a now ex-Ecopetrol employee.

Gran Tierra Energy (NYSE:GTE) will invest US$243M into its operations in Colombia, which amounts more than half of its planned investment for 2014 across all of its operations. The investment will primarily go towards 12 wells

A corruption scandal involving a pair of US former PetroTiger executives who paid an now ex-Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) engineer more than US$300,000 to win a nearly US$50M contract has rattled Colombia’s oil industry, and the Ministry of Mines and Energy (MinMinas) issued a thorough release in which it establishes the engineer was working as a rogue and that the NOC is another victim.

Talisman Energy (NYSE:TLM) is planning to invest US$300M in its operations in Colombia, with an eye on developing identified reserves in the Llanos Orientales CPO-9 and CPE-6 blocks.

Canada’s Pacific Rubiales Energy (TSX:PRE) looked to convince the market that it has a bright future past the looming decline of its flagship and namesake field, Rubiales, and has a plan to cash in on its mid-stream assets to convince a skeptical equity market.