News and AnalysIs for

Outspoken Casanare congressional representative Jorge Camilo Abril warned the Colombian Petroleum Associations (ACP) that since oil companies benefited for nearly 15 years from oil prices around US$100/barrel, the high profits should mean they increase their investments in hard times.

Alirio Barrera has taken office as Casanare Governor and immediately took to one of the department’s main issues: the General Royalty System (SGR). In a development event organized by the SGR’s handler, the National Panning Department, he called for a new royalty reform.

The Finance Minister Mauricio Cárdenas gave an interview in the World Economic Forum’s annual Davos meeting and insisted that Colombia’s economy is successfully weathering the turbulence of the continued fall in oil prices. Meanwhile back in Colombia, doubts arise as to how to finance the government’s National Development Plan.

The granting of an environmental license for production blocks in the north of the Caquetá Department has local authorities, communities and press sounding the alarm and now a committee has been formed to address production in the area.

The president of the World Bank Jim Yong Kim said in a seminar held in the presidential palace that Colombia is the best positioned oil producer in the world to successfully deal with the challenges facing the oil industry today.

Senate President Luis Fernando Velasco has again called on the government to lower prices and accept a court ruling from December 2015 which deemed a fuel price stabilization tax from the last tax reform was not properly vetted. He says it would lower the fuel prices by CoP$1000 (US$0.30).

The December MinMinas ‘accentuate the positive’ production press release only mentioned the slight month-over-month increase in December gas production, failing to mention that 2015 finished 5.6% below 2014. Or that, as the graph shows, the trend is decidedly negative.

President Juan Manuel Santos paid a visit to the Caribbean coast and addressed energy costs and supply for the region, which have been creating a stir in national politics. To better address the opportunities and needs, Santos has prepared a ‘road map’ which will lead the way to change.

We have not published our ‘Fracker Tracker’ since early December when news of ExxonMobil’s (NYSE:XOM) application for permission to frack and the signing of an unconventional contract with ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) and Canacol (TSX:CNE) had pushed positive press reports to heights not seen for some time. However, this positive press has melted away as the graph shows.

The National Hydrocarbons Agency (ANH) held a rendition of accounts at the end of 2015 and highlighted the actions of the authorities to adapt to the mounting challenges facing the industry. For 2016 though, its president Mauricio De la Mora said he expects things to be tough and that this is now the new normal.