News and AnalysIs for

The growing demand for Natural Gas Vehicles (NGV) could quicken if new vehicles for the transport industry become available, but the process to receive tax benefits for the “cleaner” vehicles and questions on supply hold the market back.

The Energy and Gas Regulation Commission (CREG) rendered accounts to a public audience and released its management report, highlighting the new market manager for the natural gas industry.

With a growing fleet of natural gas vehicles (NGVs) and expanding domestic use of the fuel, an update of prices for 2016 by the Energy & Gas Regulation Commission (CREG) will affect far more than the traditional industrial consumers.

We frankly could not remember the last time we did this chart which summarizes the data by department (rather than basin or producer) and puts oil and gas production together (by converting gas to equivalent barrels). Useful for trivia contests on rainy Sunday afternoons with the kids or settling bets at the bar. But Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) and the Colombian government should think about some other implications as well.

Eduardo Pizano, the president of Colombia’s Natural Gas Association, Naturgas, urged the government to speed up the process to issue environmental licenses for the production of Coal Bed Methane (CBM), which he said could provide an alternative source to increase the country’s gas reserves.

The Mining Energy Planning Unit (UPME) director Jorge Valencia says that whether it is through parallel networks, capacity increases or new routes to accommodate imported gas, more natural gas infrastructure is required to serve growing demand.

After a considerable amount of debate on how to set natural prices and allow the different parts of the supply chain to agree to rates, the Energy and Gas Regulation Commission (CREG) has opted for direct negotiation.

The National Infrastructure Agency (ANI) signed a port concession that will kick off the construction of Colombia’s first regasification plant, addressing a potential deficit of natural gas supply starting in 2016.

Bolsa Mercantil de Colombia (BMC) has presented the very first report of the Natural Gas Market Manager after it began operations six months ago which confirmed that supply is falling while demand rises, pushing prices up.

Political pressure on the regulatory framework to set natural gas prices continues to build uncertainty around the future prospects for the industry, as well as natural gas production and distribution.