The Magdalena River port project being built by logistics firm Impala in Barranquilla is moving forward after ending a strike in November, and is still on track to start preliminary operations in January 2015, says Impala Colombia general manager Alejandro Costa.
Ecopetrol’s (NYSE:EC) dragging of its feet on the modernization of the Barrancabermeja Refinery has put not just the city’s economy on hold, but stunted development in the region, says the thesis of a Spanish researcher.
The Cartagena Refinery (Reficar) project is nearly ready, but not finished yet. The general advance is at 97.6% and construction is at 92.7%. Plus authorities now say that a parallel project to expand the Barrancabermeja Refinery must wait in line for Reficar to finish first.
The National Association of Financial Institutions projects that once the modernization project of the Cartagena Refinery (Reficar) is finished, it could translate into 3.9% annual growth for oil refining between 2015-2020 and lead growth in the production of petrochemicals and plastics.
In Casanare transportation companies have formed a group of committees to better organize the industry, in Huila accidents and congestion due to tankers have declined while road and bridge repairs took place in Casanare, Boyacá and Norte de Santander.
An agreement that required the intervention of the Labor Ministry to negotiate between the operator of the new port project, Impala, and local workers and communities has lifted a 30-day strike which has held up progress on the construction of the new facilities.
Government promises to reroute crude from the south through pipelines to Ecuador have gone unfulfilled, while Casanare is abuzz with both cooperative work between authorities and the industry, but also criticism. These and other stories in our routine review of road and transportation related stories.
Problems surrounding an ethanol plant that is to be built by Ecopetrol’s (NYSE:EC) biofuels unit Bioenergy have made their way to the Colombian Senate, and Senate Martiza Martínez wants ECP president Javier Gutiérrez and Bioenergy manager Aleck Santamaría de la Cruz to explain the status of the plant.
The future river port on the banks of the Magdalena River in Barrancabermeja being built by port and logistics firm Impala is now 40% finished, and company management expects to meet their deadlines and have started early operations before the end of 2014.
President Juan Manuel Santos signed the contract to recover navigability on the Magdalena River, which promises to offer a new alternative transport route for hydrocarbons. The ambitious project will see work start in June 2015, and has a price tag of US$600M.
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