A few weeks ago, I watched the results presentation for this year’s “Petroleum Barometer”. The plague-year’s impact on oil and gas producing communities seemed to have improved the industry’s standing with them.
Are we not supposed to be building back greener? And so, demand should be falling and taking prices with it? Instead, oil prices (and gas prices) are reaching heights not seen for many years. What’s next? Back to US$100? And what would happen to production?
Last week, Colombian engineers’ association, ACIEM, held its annual Enercol conference, this year, virtually. Former Ecopetrol President, Ismael Arenas leads ACIEM and his keynote had important messages for policy makers. Here is an extract from his remarks, focused on the oil and gas sector and related topics.
It has been four months since we last updated our Covid-19 tracking charts, time enough for Colombia’s Third Wave to come and go. The country is now at its lowest infection level since the early days of the pandemic but other countries are riding the delta variant to a new fourth, peak.
There has always been something that felt different about September. It is a ‘wake-up call’ that the year is coming to a close or maybe it is a new beginning.
Halfway through 2021, prices and netbacks are looking significantly better than they did in 2020. The prices are the driver of higher netbacks and so while it would be hard for managers to take a lot of credit for the improvement, let us at least enjoy the higher cash flow.
On Tuesday, August 31st, we shut down the Hydrocarbons Mexico newsletter, principally because the country elected a populist (AMLO) who is re-monopolizing the entire value chain, upstream and downstream. A year from now, we will have a new government in Colombia and the current front runner is a populist (Gustavo Petro) who says he will suspend oil exploration.
We know. We said we were tired of writing about the ECP / ISA deal which we view as a nothing more than a financial game by MinHacienda. But we had been making some qualitative statements without quantitative support and that was not consistent with our philosophy. Warning: this article is nerdy.
I just got back from an extended “stay-cation” in Eastern Canada, mostly spent with my family. But an evening with friends that go back to university days, reminded me just how controversial our industry is today.
Brief comments this time on the charts updated for first half results because the story has not changed much.
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