A report of the Agustín Codazzi Geographical Institute (IGAC), which oversees political and land borders says there are 84 “questionable borders”, many of them falling in producing regions. Of these 20 will be prioritized in 2015 for clarification.
The Central Workers Union (CUT) has entered the labor dispute generated as companies cut costs due to the fall in oil prices, and is promoting a strike of oil workers. Meanwhile the USO oil workers union has the member vote to strike, and promises that they will take action very soon.
An announcement from Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) that it would restrict its public wholesale offer of propane could have an alarming impact on low income communities along with health and environmental implications says the Union of Colombian Propane Companies (Gasnova).
Ecoperol cannot live of off “excessive prices” on fuel at the expense of Colombians, says the outspoken Meta Senator Maritza Martínez.
The Minister of Mines and Energy (MinMinas) Tomás Gonzalez addressed a seminar and said that through the government’s National Development Plan it will introduce modifications to contract conditions signed with the National Hydrocarbons Association (ANH) and make royalties more flexibile, two of the measures the industry has asked for.
Political pressure to nix a regulatory change to let the market set prices for the natural gas market has prompted the government to promise that rates on the Caribbean coast will only go up by a maximum of 4%, compared to the 25% rate increase planned under the new system.
The think-tank of the Ministry of Mines and Energy (MinMinas), the Mining Energy Planning Unit (UPME), has a new director. Jorge Valencia comes from the electrical energy sector and took the role early this week.
In an apparent effort to avoid a truckers strike and ward off critics of its fuel pricing policy, the central government made a surprise announcement to cut both diesel and gasoline prices by CoP$300 (US$0.12), bringing gasoline to its lowest level in almost five years.
Despite the fall in oil prices companies must not simply “discard workers” and cut “the more fragile half” of the business to reduce costs says the Labor Minister Luis (Lucho) Eduardo Garzón.
The ink is barely dry on the most recent tax reform, and already analysts are suggesting the government will have to take further measures to address the budget deficit in 2016 due to the drop in oil prices.
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