News and AnalysIs for

The Colombian oil sector has been key for the country’s economy, but its future is uncertain, as popular referendums and social unrest are putting its development at risk. Sergio Cabrales Arévalo, Doctor and Researcher in Administration of the Andes University, made an analysis of the sector’s future.

Antoine Halff, researcher at the Center for Global Energy Policy at Columbia University and former lead analyst for the International Energy Agency (IEA), spoke about the situation of the industry in Colombia.

The Colombian Caribbean region has high expectations about the benefits of the offshore industry. German Espinosa, President of the Colombian Chamber of Goods and Services (Campetrol) talked about challenges to supply operations.

Some other countries that allocate few resources to generate alternative energies are Venezuela and Argentina.

With the title “Fracking vs clean development mechanisms” a Llanos Internet news site tries to cover all the sides of the water issue but ends in a predictable conclusion.

This week the USO reported on its national assembly and its plans to create an occupational health department. More important is a news item on hearings in Villavicencio on the social and environmental impacts of the mining and hydrocarbons sectors in the department of Meta. A left-wing senator, Alexander López Maya told the hearing that working conditions in Puerto Gaitan were typical of a concentration camp. That’s strange considering that Pacific Rubiales told a conference on sustainable communities and petroleum last Friday that it had no community or labor relations issues in Puerto Gaitan. Although the truth is no doubt somewhere between zero and the Gulag archipelago, we are inclined to think it very much closer to the company’s point of view than one reported by the USO.

(The USO is the Colombian petroleum workers union. Unrepentantly radically left, it often seems trapped in some Marxist-Leninist twilight zone from before the fall of the Berlin Wall or perhaps before the Second World War. Still its capacity for mischief is unmistakable and so we believe it is important for oil and gas industry stakeholders to keep track of what they are up to. We will summarize major news items from their webpage or other sources and publish the summary every Monday. We will reproduce the tone of their items while not agreeing with their messages.)

October 10, 2012
After a union leader told RCN Radio that recent riots in Puerto Gaitan that killed three people were because “Pacific Rubiales has not kept its commitments”, the company was forced to issue a statement that this was not true. The company’s explanation fits the facts better: that a policeman ran over and killed a small child, the community wanted to lynch him, his fellow policemen defended him and a riot broke out.

Chile-based GeoPark reported its first half 2012 results in a press release, highlighting acquisitions in Colombia that increased production and successful exploration in Colombia as well.

The company closed two acquisitions in Colombia in the first half and that contributed 88% of the 194% increase in revenues that the company recorded. The price was US$105M and revenue contribution for the first half was US$36M which should make the CFO and the shareholders happy.