The association of propane gas distributors Gasnova reiterated its alarms that Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) is taking measures to limit the supply of propane gas in Colombia to benefit its financial results, which it says will have a grave impact on the poorest populations in the country.
The Network for Tax Justice has filed a lawsuit to anull the Ministry of Mines and Energy (MinMinas) resolution that defines the formula used to determine the country´s fuel prices.
The low price of oil is putting Colombia’s biofuels industry and future investments for it at risk says the National Federation of Biofuels (Fedebiocombustibles), although Ecopetrol’s (NYSE:EC) biofuel unit Bioenergy says it will move forward will an expansion of sugar cane crops for fuels and a long delayed plant.
The graph shows Ecopetrol’s attributed Net Income to its Refining and Petrochemicals line of business for the full year 2014 and prior years. The good news is that things are not as bad as last year. The bad news is fairly obvious: it still lost nearly US$450M.
The price of fuel in Colombia fell for the fourth straight month, but the Ministry of Mines and Energy (MinMInas) says that a weak peso against the dollar continues to keep the fall modest.
In an apparent effort to avoid a truckers strike and ward off critics of its fuel pricing policy, the central government made a surprise announcement to cut both diesel and gasoline prices by CoP$300 (US$0.12), bringing gasoline to its lowest level in almost five years.
“Let’s do the time warp again!” One of the protagonists has changed and at last the government has weighed in but it still feels like 2013 all over again with Naturgas saying there is plenty of gas and an industry association, now the ACP, saying there is not.
The drop in the oil price has spurred dramatic cuts in the investment plans of Colombia’s most important operators, but there is a long ripple effect that the price fall has on the communities, junior operators and side projects that go beyond the big headlines. Here is a summary of some of the more relevant stories to emerge over the last week or so.
On Tuesday we published our index graph of retail fuel prices through February and the average of WTI and Brent in pesos as a proxy for the price of a barrel of oil. We noted that retail prices were 20 to 30% above where they were in January 2010 even though crude prices were 15% below.
Over the last three years the biofuels industry has seen an expansion of its production capacity, now with 14 plants, four of which that have been built in this period.
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