News and AnalysIs for

This month we start with a commentary by industry consultant Warren Levy on a healthier relationship between E&P and services companies.

This week laid bare one of the truths of policy in Colombia, (and plenty of other places of course): 9 times out of 10, politics will trump economics.

As the impact of the Great Slide in oil prices begins to be felt in the broader Colombian economy, industry associations and think tanks find they have a ready audience with the press. Anyone who can articulate a rational perspective contributes to the debate on the country’s most serious economic issue at the present time.

January production provided better than expected results as the number of attacks on infrastructure dropped, while the Colombian Petroleum Association (ACP) sent out a warning on natural gas policies and their long term consequences.

There is considerable pessimism in the Colombian industry and keeping with the pessimistic theme, we start this month’s edition with the results of our annual pulse survey.

We are in end-of-year vacations and, if only for a brief period, we will spend more time thinking about family (hopefully) than work.

This week Colombia’s Congress passed the government’s tax reform measure and it would take a miracle to prevent President Juan Manuel Santos from signing it.

This week November production was released and average crude production stayed just above a million barrels. The tax reform bill has made it out of the senate while rumors on Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) management change continue to distract from the NOC’s need to change pace.

We were tempted not to write this story since by now everyone remotely connected to the industry must have read or seen hundreds of stories. But we think there will be long-term consequences to the industry if this really is a structural change in prices.