With social investment and corporate social responsibility budgets cut tight with the fall in oil prices, a document filed with the National Department of Planning (DNP) outlines which priorities the government considers the most urgent.
Estimates from the Casanare Chamber of Commerce show that the market for contractor firms has been halved due to the fall in oil prices, and could be greater when considering the indirect industries which have been affected.
The government is advancing with a plan to establish free trade zones for offshore exploration blocks, and also approved extensions to concession contracts awarded in the Colombia Round 2014.
The Colombian Association of Natural Gas (Naturgas) president Eduardo Pizano insists that the country’s gas supply is solid, and that the sector needs advances on certain regulatory fronts more than anything.
Colombia’s watchdog on corporate activity, Supersociedades, studied 53 companies from the oil and gas sector and concluded that 23 or about 40% were at a high risk of declaring bankruptcy.
The Bolsa Mercantil de Colombia (BMC) held its official launch to mark its role as the “Amazon” of the natural gas market. No mention was made of the political forces who have been successful in circumventing the open market when it comes to pricing.
The General Comptroller (CGR) says that Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) has incurred a CoP$16.5B (US$6.5M) loss due to poor control and contract management when receiving fields being operated by other operators, amounting to a loss of state resources, a charge which the NOC denied.
The Colombian Chamber of Oil Goods and Services (Campetrol) believes that using a shared risk model could help the struggling oil services sector by taking on a greater part of the risk, and the potential for rewards, between operators and service firms.
New Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) CEO Juan Carlos Echeverry made positive (although qualified) comments about fracking. Newspapers picked them up but those were the first positive reports we had seen for a long time.
As part of its strategy to increase the longevity of Colombia’s proven crude reserves the National Hydrocarbons Agency (ANH) wants to grow the average recovery factor to 35% from the current average of 18%, by 2020.
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