Continued security problems have the Arauca Department authorities and law enforcement officials scrambling to properly assign personnel and resources to the task of protecting the strategic Coveñas / Caño Limón and Bicentennial pipelines.
Colombia’s association of transportation firms Asecarga has accused Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) of awarding contracts to select firms and not holding transparent, open processes to select a contractor. The association has sent a formal request to the nation’s inspector general Alejandro Ordóñez to investigate the matter.
A proposal from the National Infrastructure Agency (ANI) to route tanker-trucks carrying crude from the Rubiales fields through the municipalities of Maní and Aguazul has a number of local officials in arms over the possible ramification of the increased tanker traffic.
The Caño Limon –Coveñas Pipeline, an asset of Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC), announced the awarding of the maintenance contract to a new operator, and while some in the local press are interested in the opportunities this may bring, others have rejected it as a change of façade and nothing else.
The Regional Autonomous Corporation of the Upper Magdalena (CAM) has fined seven transportation companies for environmental damage from oil spills, not having a contingency plan and non-compliance with preventative measures
Pacific Rubiales Energy (TSX:PRE) says it has finished and launched an electrical transmission line that runs from the hydro-electrical center in Chivor, Boyacá to its flagship field Rubiales in Meta, which it says will save US$100M in operational costs annually.
Multinational trading and logistics firm Trafigura Impala is on the verge of starting construction on a river port in Barrancabermeja to ship goods, among them hydrocarbons, along the Magdalena river.
Estimates from Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) are that upcoming phases of the current modernization work at the Barrancabermeja Refinery will employ up to 5000 people at its peak of activity in 2014.
Javier Gutiérrez, president of Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) made a visit to the municipality in San Antero and told local press that the Bicentennial Pipeline (OBC) will be online in December, the latest change in the start of its operations, mainly due to security threats.
A chain of events set off by a truck loaded with 230 barrels of crude crashing on a Putumayo highway which led then to a spill which reached the Magdalena river, has moved local authorities to ban a number of transport companies from operating and heavy trucks from using their normal routes in Huila.
2024, Hydrocarbons Colombia, All Rights Reserved.
