Following on his order to study tax breaks for the oil industry, President Juan Manuel Santos has now called on sector entities to study a reduction in pipeline rates to boost the industry’s financial standing.
The Energy and Mining Planning Unit (UPME) has been moving forward with plans to tender the expansion of gas pipelines to improve the supply of the gas, and now details on the organization of the eventual network have emerged as well.
As one of his last actions at his post, the Attorney General Eduardo Montealegre has called on judges in Bogotá’s Paloquemao Judicial Complex to hold an audience to bring charges against the the ELN leaders for systematic attacks on oil infrastructure and the resulting environmental damage.
Traditionally, Colombians have thought of their natural gas as coming from La Guajira. Even when we started HCC in 2012, La Guajira represented 51% of gas production. But by 4Q15, that figure had dropped to 31%. Casanare is the new leader.
A group of politicians in Meta have demanded explanations on the status of a planned refinery in Meta and how CoP$17B (US$5.6M) have been spent on the refinery, which still has not started the construction phase.
Colombia’s first regasification plant, located in the Cartagena, is 70% finished and should be ready in December 2016. The general manager of the facilities explained why the project has taken so long and the process still needed to get it up and running.
The Energy Mining Planning Unit (UPME) presented its report on the natural gas sector in the recent Colombian Natural Gas Association (Naturgas) and said that reforming the transportation system is a top priority, along with improving reliability and building a regasification plant on the Pacific coast.
Unwavered by a formal decision to suspend the modernization of the Barrancabermeja Refinery by Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC), city authorities and unions continue to call for the project. The refinery management has denied rumors that it is currently unsafe and defended the NOC’s priorities.
In Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) 4Q15 results conference call, Cenit President Tomás Rueda revealed that the NOC is working with authorities on a new pipeline tariff scheme. That no doubt pleased his suffering clients.
It was already burning, and you should not blame the firefighters, said Ecopetrol president Juan Carlos Echeverry in response to questions regarding the role of current ministers and government officials in the overruns of the Cartagena Refinery. This and other stories in our update on this matter.
2025, Hydrocarbons Colombia, All Rights Reserved.
