News and AnalysIs for

By Andrés Julián Reina Herrera

The department of Meta in Colombia’s Llanos basin is the most important oil producer in the country with just under half of total production – an average 454mbd through September, 2012.

Our Monthly Report for January 2013 is now available for download (see below). It includes commentary on Colombia’s goals for 2013 by contributor Manuel Maiguashca Olano, an report on tanker trucks in Meta and a fascinating study of local political power relationships in Caquetá by Signum Consulting.

The chart shows stock prices for the largest publicly traded oil and gas companies that whose activities are largely if not exclusively based in Colombia. All five have over 90% of current production in Colombia (although all are exploring elsewhere).

The graph shows netback and cost broken down into three major categories: royalties, transport and production. The values are averaged over the seven publicly traded companies whose majority business is in Colombia and who provide enough data to do this graph.

Colombia finally achieved its goal of producing 1 million bpd. This new production level positions Colombia on the map of the middle leagues in world production. This is similar to Oman, a traditional Arab Emirate oil producer and the country ranks high in world production.

Frequent readers of our monthly report will be familiar with our challenges in getting timely, consistent information from the National Environmental Licensing Agency (ANLA).

Our monthly Inner Circle report is now available for download (see below). This month we feature two interviews, one with ex-head of the National Hydrocarbons Agency, Armando Zamora and one with the leaders of Petrominerales’ Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives, María Mercedes Palacio and Larry Kozy.

HCC Managing Editor Wally Swain and collaborator Algimantas Didziulis had a conversation with the ex-head of the National Hydrocarbons Agency (ANH), Armando Zamora. Zamora was the very first head of the ANH so his comments carry considerable weight in the industry.

Like all oil and gas companies in the Colombian market, Petrominerales must be concerned with its investment in community relations. These investments fall into two buckets: compliance and long term, sustainable, program-oriented initiatives.

On Tuesday December 11 union leader Milton Enrique Rivas was killed in Puerto Gaitán (Meta). Rivas worked for Termotécnica, embroiled in a dispute with the Petroleum Workers Union (USO), and was killed a few meters from the company’s offices.