UPDATED — Colombia’s Supreme Court has ruled the current pricing scheme in which the presidential administration smooths prices is unconstitutional. Instead any mechanism should fall to congress. Meanwhile the Liberal Party pushes the new mines and energy minister to study a decrease in fuel prices.
Ecopetrol looks to grow its gas production to between 195-260 KBPDE by 2020, depending on how much the industry is able to harness off-shore and unconventional reserves. Production in 2012 reached 119 KBPDE and should grow to 127 KBPDE in 2013.
Ecopetrol (NYSE: EC) started the second phase of the socialization process for its Odisea 3D seismic exploration project, holding meetings and environmental workshops in three villages in Casanare. Its seismic exploration in the area has come under fire and been blamed in local press for causing damage to the environment, in particular to rivers.
Ecopetrol’s president Javier Gutiérrez says that the NOC’s refining business is already operating at a lost in some cases and a drop in the final price between CoP$1000-2000 would mean losses for the company around US$1.75B.
Ecopetrol’s president Javier Gutiérrez said this week that the NOC continues to evaluate fundamentals to decide if it will extend or not the concession of the Rubiales field with Canada’s Pacific Rubiales Energy past its current expiration date in 2016.
In order to finance infrastructure investments in roads, bridges, airports and other items holding back Colombia’s development Ecopetrol should sell an additional 10% of its shares to private investors, says the president of Colombia’s National Association of Financial Institutions (ANIF).
Heavy crude production increased, but lower prices and higher costs from its spinoff of transportation services cut into Ecopetrol’s profits in the second quarter of 2013 although it held production to last year’s level, growing 2.1%.
Venezuela’s need for gas may prompt its NOC PDVSA to attempt to extend the contract it has with Ecopetrol past its current expiration date of 2014. How Colombia’s supply or problems in payments for the gas could change as a consequence still remains a question.
Ecopetrol says that in the first half of 2013 more than 37,000 people worked on job sites and projects of the NOC each month through associated contractors. While they didn’t provide any comparison figures, the company did say local labor was used to fill 72% of these positions.
Ecopetrol will hold environmental workshops with communities that fall in the area of influence of the ODISEA 3D seismic exploration project and the company insists that there are no environmental consequences as a result of the exploration.
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