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In Yaguará, Huila, Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) insists that it has hired 100% of its unskilled labor locally and 30% of skilled labor, but individuals in the community have maintained blockades affecting five wells for nearly two months.

We might have called this ‘Small is Beautiful’. Comparing the national public oil companies (NOCs) using published financial results for 2015, the larger ones are ‘profitability challenged’ and the smaller ones do better.

The Cartagena Refinery has reported all 34 of its production units are now up and running, completing the startup phase and the controversial expansion of its capacity.

Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) through its subsidiary Ecodiesel, has helped create 10,000 jobs and cleaner biofuels in Barrancabermeja thanks to an alliance with different palm oil firms in the Middle Magdalena.

Reduced drilling times, an efficient use of personnel and new technologies tested in other fields are some of the goals that Ecopetrol has put in place to reverse a declining production trend in the Rubiales field, according to its VP of production Hector Manosalva.

Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) has applied for modifications to its environmental licenses to drill new wells in the vicinity of Barranca. It has met with residents from 120 area villages to socialize the changes and impact it could have on the community. Municipal authorities say they will verify the work.

Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) president Juan Carlos Echeverry took to the press to talk about the NOC’s plans and challenges in the Rubiales field, and addressed other big issues like the Propilco sale, Bioenergy, and more

Ecopetrol has announced that two of its high executives will swap roles. Thomas Rueda, current president of the NOC’s transportation firm Cenit, will take over as president of the Ocensa pipeline, while the pipeline’s president, Luisa Fernanda Lafaurie, will take the Cenit role.

As we write this the Rubiales field is hours away from being reverted to Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC), marking the end of an era for Pacific E&P. Starting at 12am on Friday, July 1, the NOC will be tasked with taking the field over, and plans to start a new drilling effort to maintain its declining production level.

The other major reversion (besides Rubiales), Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) is set to receive the Cusiana field on July 4^th, after the end of the Tauramena association contract, signed originally between BP (NYSE:BP) and Ecopetrol in 1986.