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Six areas in the “Orinoco belt” — which occupies the foothills of the Llanos on the borders of Meta and Guaviare — look to extract up to 10M barrels over the next 10 years.

Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) has launched its new business plan through 2020, with a renewed focus on exploration and production and an estimated US$13B investment plan.

Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) will start its Rubiales field drilling campaign this month with 72 wells planned for the country’s largest producing and recently reverted field.

Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) needs capital to start a new exploration campaign and add new production, and non-committal statements from its president Juan Carlos Echeverry have led to speculation that the government could issue another round of shares.

The USO has been politicking and reaching out to friends in high places, in an effort to build political momentum and recruit allies ahead of an Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) strike planned for October.

Ecopetrol’s (NYSE:EC) board of directors have added three new members which have been designated to replace Roberto Steiner, Jorge Pinzón and Gustavo Carvajal.

The Cartagena Refinery (Reficar) will not start to show profits until 2017, 18 months following the operational launch of the facility, and something similar is expected for Ecopetrol’s (NYSE:EC) Bioenergy biofuels plant as well.

Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) President Juan Carlos Echeverry said that gas production in Colombia must address the coming “valley of death”, the period between the decline of current producing fields and the entry of production from Caribbean offshore.

Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) has been weathering a rocky sea since the fall of oil prices, but four specific problems will have to be sorted out over the coming weeks for the NOC to press on with its operation.

Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC)’s plans to auction off non-strategic assets in a special bidding round has received interest from a total of 138 suitors, as the NOC looks to sell off around 20 of its smaller and mature fields and blocks.