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The service industry and members of the Colombian Chamber of Oil Goods and Services (Campetrol) have suffered over the last year, with 38 service firms filing for bankruptcy protection and 40,000 jobs lost. Its president Ruben Dario Lizarralde urged Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) to continue exploring for the good of the country.

The Colombian Association of Oil Engineers (ACIPET) believes that the main focus of the industry and authorities this year should be to add 1B barrels of new crude reserves in order to position the sector for an eventual recovery of oil prices six or seven years down the road.

The Colombian Petroleum Association released the results of a study on investment trends and found that the tax reform of 2014 has led to a poor investment climate which has resulted in a 28% fall in CAPEX in 2015 when compared to the year prior, with exploration taking the biggest hit.

An absence of exploratory results from the hydrocarbons industry is likely to extend until 2017 warns the National Association of Financial Institutions (ANIF), and Ecopetrol’s (NYSE:EC) results will continue to suffer despite production increases, representing a loss of between 1-2% of the GDP.

ANH President Mauricio de la Mora was practically exuberant at a ceremony in the ANH’s offices on Wednesday. And why not? Canacol (TSX:CNE) and ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) were signing the agency’s first additional unconventional contract and victory had been snatched from the jaws of defeat.

The former Vice-Minister and of Energy and former president of the National Hydrocarbons Agency (ANH) Orlando Cabrales has spent less time in public eye since leaving his post last year, but recently penned a critical article on the factors that have led Colombia to a shortage of natural gas.

The president of the Colombian Chamber of Oil Goods and Services (Campetrol) Rubén Darío Lizarralde warned attendees at an event in Barrancabermeja that Colombia’s proven reserves are enough to last for only six more years, and the current government strategy will not do much to change that. Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) then responded.

Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) president Juan Carlos Echeverry has in the past defended what others consider high taxes on oil companies, but in a recent report a national radio chain says he sees the nearly 70% state take as being a barrier to foreign investment, affecting in particular exploration wells.

The National Hydrocarbons Agency (ANH) president Mauricio de la Mora outlined the entity’s goals in a meeting with the business sector and said that it expects 28 to 32 exploratory wells this year.

While Caribbean offshore blocks have received attention and been the site of recent discoveries, Pacific blocks have failed to gain the same interest and results. Now the National Hydrocarbons Agency (ANH) is looking to hold a competitive process in 2016 to find operators.