News and AnalysIs for

General Comptroller, Edgardo Maya, warned about the risks of implementing fracking in Colombia, reopening the controversy on the subject.

The Colombian Chamber of Goods and Services (Campetrol) reported its drill rig information for July 2018. The good trend continues, as the industry reported more rigs working in this period compared to July 2017 and previous month.

The possible loss of oil self-sufficiency has been one of the main issues discussed in Colombia during last years. The development of unconventional deposits is one of the most attractive alternatives to solve this concern and the sector is ready to move forward on this issue.

The president of the National Hydrocarbons Agency (ANH), Orlando Velandia, spoke about prospects and projects for the sector in the first half of the year, among other topics.

Maria Fernanda Suarez, Minister of Mines and Energy (MinMinas), created a debate about the possibility of implementing unconventional techniques such as fracking in Colombia. Experts talked about this alternative.

Julio César Vera, president of the Colombian Association of Petroleum Engineers (Acipet), spoke about the importance of fracking to assure the country’s self-sufficiency.

The National Hydrocarbons Agency (ANH) spoke about what must be done to assure the success of the industry in Colombia.

This week we skip our ‘Last 8 years’ qualitative feature in favor of a guest contribution but we continue the series in our quantitative analysis column. Last week we looked at turnover in key policy positions. If policy instability put off investors, we would expect it to show up in investment and exploration statistics, which is what we look at here.

The Congress must decide what will happen with the bill that seeks to ban fracking in Colombia. Carlos Andrés Santiago, promoter of the project, spoke on the matter.

The Colombian government is making an important commitment to promote the development of offshore projects and take advantage of the Caribbean Sea potential. This has generated high expectations in the Caribbean region of the country, especially in the department of Atlántico. There, leaders are discussing about how to leverage these opportunities and their risks.