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Corruption cases in Colombia are unfortunately common and there is a new one emerging. The Colombian Attorney General’s office conducted an investigation against Cúcuta former judges, whose decisions affected Ecopetrol (NYSE: EC).

Experts in the energy industry said that with such a drastic cut in the industry’s budget; about 10 million users could lose their access to energy service.

The country is facing times of high legal uncertainty because of the boom in popular consultations against the oil and mining sectors. Mauricio Cárdenas, Minister of Finance, talked about this situation and consequences of these actions.

An initiative to improve the direct allocation of royalties to oil producing regions was filed by Congressman Jorge Camilo Abril, and Collegiate Bodies for Administration and Decision (OCAD) in Magdalena and Bogotá announced the development of new projects. These and other stories in our Royalties periodic summary.

The National Hydrocarbons Agency (ANH) is working to face the boom of popular referendums around Colombia. The ANH is talking and socializing projects with communities to prevent referendums in the future and it seems that it is working.

The National Hydrocarbons Agency (ANH) held an internal accountability session to discuss issues related to its management and results.

The president of the National Hydrocarbons Agency (ANH,) Orlando Velandia, spoke about the information program that the industry is currently developing throughout the country.

After the Colombian Association of Petroleum Engineers (Acipet) requested a third injunction against popular consultations in the country, the Administrative Tribunal of Cundinamarca suspended the popular consultation in Pasca (Cundinamarca.)

Colombia has many offshore projects to develop in coming years. Companies are preparing and Barranquilla as well.

With the new ruling, the Government would not alter the mechanism of citizen participation, but would seek to integrate it to the development of extractive projects.