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Authorities from Colombia and Venezuela met in Maracaibo last week and have penned an agreement to collaborate against the sale of contraband fuel on their shared border, and opened the door to selling Venezuelan fuel once again.

Colombia’s comptroller Sandra Morelli was back making rounds with radio stations this week while visiting Cartagena, criticizing what she says is the “poor planning” which has dogged the Cartagena Refinery (Reficar) project.

The governor of the Norte de Santander Department Édgar Díaz Contreras has proposed the construction of a micro-refinery with a capacity of 40,000bd to produce fuels for the region which is looking for alternatives after Venezuelan fuel sales were suspended last May.

The Ministry of Mines and Energy (MinMinas) says it is looking to expand the access and reach of propane in energy generation and use it in areas that farther off the formal energy grid.

The Minister of Mines and Energy Amylkar Acosta has ruled out a new price freeze on diesel while transportation associations and fuel retailers repeat demands that the cost must drop.

MinMinas resently opened negotiations with various truckers’ associations and representatives of other large domestic users on the stabilization formula for gasoline and especially diesel prices.

The Ministry of Mines and Energy (MinMinas) published an outline of the policy alignments of the formula to set fuel prices, and said that prices will remain stable in December and have actually shown a 4% decrease compared to last year.

The Ministry of Mines and Energy (MinMinas) has presented its formula to lower fuel costs at the pump and also believes that the modernization of national refineries could also contribute to a lower price in the midterm.

The government is presenting a new formula to calculate fuel prices and the Ministry of Mines and Energy says it has a plan that will not sacrifice income for Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC).

The graph above shows a drop in the value in the exports of Colombian oil and derivatives, part of an up and down trend despite sustained rises in production.