In order to combat illegal fuel sales of Venezuelan fuel in Colombian territory, Venezuelan authorities have agreed to increase fuel prices and restart sales along the common border in La Guajira Department.
Government negotiators and the truckers union reached an agreement last week that stops the blockades (caused by truckers) and gets goods moving again.
Ecopetrol’s president Javier Gutiérrez says that the NOC’s refining business is already operating at a lost in some cases and a drop in the final price between CoP$1000-2000 would mean losses for the company around US$1.75B.
The price of fuel has emerged from the ongoing national strike as a central theme for discord. One proposal is to rehash the formula used to figure fuel prices and reduce taxes. Greater user of pipelines to transport crude also arose as a option.
After a meeting between the members of the Finance, Mines and Energy and Transport ministries with the Colombian Truckers Association (ACC) the government has recognized the trucker’s national strike and found its demands to be valid.
Colombia’s economy growth is “unbalanced” and slowing, and the increased supply of shale gas oil could tamper the boom in the country’s energy production in 2-3 years says Sergio Clavijo, director of Colombia’s National Association of Financial Institutions.
After years of tracking very closely together, Brent separated from WTI in late 2010 and at one point in 2011, was nearly US$30. Last week the gap closed.
After a substantial run-up in production in the later months of 2012, oil production and for that matter, total production has been just about flat.
The Colombian government says one million new users have been connected to the natural gas network Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos took office in August 2010.
The Natural Gas Association (Naturgas) says that proposed changes that would institute a system of public auctions to set wholesale prices as proposed by Colombia’s Energy Regulatory Commission and Gas – CREG would lead to price increases and opposes the system.
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