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The Colombian Petroleum Workers Union (USO) has called for an industry-wide strike or day of protest in the oil-important department of Meta on October 3, 2012. The union is in a bitter battle with CEPCOLSA and its subcontractor Termtecnica Coindustrial but has been trying to widen the dispute to include Pacific Rubiales. A few weeks ago, it told reporters from RCN Radio that riots in the city of Puerto Gaitan were directed at the company, something that spokesperson Ferderico Restrepo had to deny publicly. The union says the march, strike or day of protest has the goal of raising awareness on the following:

We have started tracking security events that could be important for the Oil Gas and Mining industry. See our dedicated page here for a complete listing.

Yesterday violent protests in Puerto Gaitan, Meta left 3 dead. RCN Radio — which usually takes a “right-of-center” stance — reported that the protests were because Pacific Rubiales had “failed to deliver on its commitments”. UPDATE: On September 17th, Pacific Rubiales Corporate Affairs Director, Frederico Restrepo told RCN Radio that the protests were not directed at the company but caused by the death of a small child in a traffic accident with a policeman.

We have started tracking security events that could be important for the Oil Gas and Mining industry. See our dedicated page here for a complete listing. We will only be publishing significant events and summaries in the Hydrocarbons Colombia page.

From a Defense Ministry Press Release. Translated and with commentary by Hydrocarbons Colombia.
A new security forces plan aimed at protecting the country’s economic infrastructure, was announced today by the Minister of Defense, Juan Carlos Pinzón, during the “All Allied for Safety” forum organized by Semana magazine.

In a press release, Suroco Energy announces that the Cohembi-8 well has been placed into production at 150 bpd. The graph shows production from the entire field which is shared with Ecopetrol (48%) and the operator Vetra 33%, leaving Suroco with 19%. Cohembí has a nice upward trend, a welcome sight since overall this year Colombian total production has been falling. The company reports that its share after royalties was 987bpd in July, 1,117bpd in August and 1,243 before bringing Cohembi-8 on line. That would imply a rather healthy increase in the production from the entire field, reaching over 6,000bpd in August.

August 10, 2012 On July 30th, Australian company Range Resources Ltd published its 2Q12 operational update. A considerable portion of the document was devoted to its new economic participation agreement with private company Petro Caribbean Resources  Ltd  “that will see the Company earn a 65% economic interest (option to move to 75%) in Blocks PUT-6 and PUT-7 in return for funding (on a cost recoverable basis) the commitments under the Production Sharing Agreement (“PSA”) with the National Hydrocarbons Agency of Colombia (“ANH”).”