News and AnalysIs for

Colombia’s reserves are dwindling, and exploration programs have suffered a drastic fall compared to last year, prompting speculation that Colombia could have to start importing crude in the not so distant future.

Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) has deeply cut its 2015 Capex and wants to reduce its operational costs by 30% as well, but it will still destine US$200M to offshore development and drilling.

While known as a producer of gas, La Guajira in northeastern Colombia has characteristics that led researchers at the National University to believe that it could hold an extension of the crude deposits found in the Middle Magdalena Valley.

In a presentation to the industry and other interested parties at the ANDI’s ‘Genera’ conference recently, the ANH showed a chart saying there was just over US$7B of investment pending from E&P and TEA contracts.

With an estimated drop of 50% in 2015, budgets for exploration activities are feeling a strong pinch from the low international oil prices, bringing long term issues for Colombia’s oil industry.

Whether talking about seismic activities, exploration drilling or overall production, 2014 failed to size up to the projections and goals that the industry and government had established for the year.

The fracking debate had been quiet for nearly 2 months with articles dwindling down to nearly zero. Now things seem to be heating up again, ahead of a National Hydrocarbons Agency forum next week.

The Minister of mines and Energy (MinMinas) Tomás González paid a visit to Yopal, Casanare and outlined the root causes of the drop in oil prices, and also talked about exploration plans to grow reserves and production.

After rising two weeks in a row, articles on fracking or unconventional hydrocarbons fell last week. Positive articles exactly balanced negative ones.

Readers will have noticed a number of articles this week and last week on fracking. We decided to keep track of the number of articles we have found and whether they are positive or negative.