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There is a new Deputy Director of the section of the National Environmental Licensing Agency that is responsible for the technical parts of permitting. This puts her at the heart of the difficult balancing job. From an ANLA press release, translated and with commentary by Hydrocarbons Colombia.

As reported by El Tiempo, about a thousand plants among anthurium, cacti, ferns, orchids and bromeliads that were at risk because Bicentennial (OBC) pipeline construction, were transferred to the ecological reserve La Marteja (Casanare) and the natural park Los Libertadores (Arauca). The plants were collected along 230 km thanks to the initiative of the “Fotosíntesis” organization, the Sicim Colombia Company and OBC.

In an interview with El Espectador, MinMinas Federico Renjifo spoke about oil and environmental licenses, among other topics. Regarding oil production, Renjifo said: “This year we reached 1.014M barrels. This month we reached 1.027M barrels and we can reach 1.033M barrels. It has been a good indicator and the challenge is to maintain that production. We have increased reserves. Colombia requires a reserves increase.” He added that it is necessary to increase exploration, since there has not been a great discovery and current reserves are extracted from small wells.

Considering that the US is perhaps the most pro-unconventional hydrocarbons country and Colombia needs to start making decisions about how to manage the environmental issues, we can only hope this agreement is good news. From a MinAmbiente press release, translated and with commentary by Hydrocarbons Colombia.

We tweeted last week about a collision between an oil tanker and a ship transporting bananas in the Caribbean Sea off the cost of Urabá. Oil spilled from the tanker. There were obvious concerns about potential serious environmental damage in the area and Ecopetrol dispatched a team to evaluate the situation. Now it appears that most of the spill has been mopped up. From a MinAmbiente press release, translated and with commentary by Hydrocarbons Colombia.

France’s EFE news agency interviewed Oscar Villadiego, board chairman of the Regional Association of Oil, Gas and Biofuels Industry in Latin America and the Caribbean (ARPEL). Villadiego said that Latin America and the Caribbean form a region “full of opportunities” to produce hydrocarbons, adding that “more space should be given to new technologies to better and more dynamically develop these resources.”

The Environment section of national newspaper El Espectador devoted nearly a full page of today’s edition to a report (from Spain’s El País) on a 5.7 magnitude quake in Prague, Oklahoma in 2011. The El País story in turn is based on a report in Geology magazine which concludes the quake was caused by the accumulated impact of 20 years of water reinjection from a conventional gas well. The photo used to illustrate the story, and indeed most of the story, has to do with the fracking debate and the relevance of this incident to nonconventional hydrocarbons development.

RCN Radio reports that according to Pacific Rubiales’ vice president Federico Restrepo, the company has increased its oil reserves thanks to projects like the La Creciente gas field (Sucre) and others developed in Peru. Pacific also increased its reserves to 517M proved barrels with other findings which will allow oil supplies until 2027.

Ecopetrol is sending out a number of press releases designed to bolster its corporate social responsibility credentials. This week, environmental issues have the focus especially the company’s considerable investment as part of its long-term strategy to produce “clean barrels”. From an Ecopetrol press release, translated and with commentary by Hydrocarbons Colombia.

The National Environmental Licensing Agency (ANLA) has not been helped by the poor data it acquired from the Ministry of Environment when the agency was formed. Since then it has been working hard to fill in the gaps with environmental baseline studies and geo-referencing IT investments. We reported on this project when it was as the consultation stage. From an ANLA press release, translated and with commentary by Hydrocarbons Colombia.