Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) has handed out scholarships for rural residents to take on university studies, and distinguished 16 national initiatives with its innovation awards for 2016. These and other Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) stories in our periodic summary.
During the recent debates on the 2017-2018 royalty budget, Centro Democratico Senators Ivan Duque and Oscar Darío Pérez complained that most projects were subscale and so lacked impact. With the data we collected for our recent long article on fairness, we had the information necessary to look at the question.
Even though Colombia has natural gas reserves which are set to last for another six years, if no new discoveries are made then imports to cover national demand would have to start in 2018 due to problems in the distribution and transportation of gas.
The Ministry of Mines and Energy (MinMinas) has confirmed that 18 companies -12 from the hydrocarbons industry- will participate in the second Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI) report which will cover income and payments made in 2014 and 2015.
The two largest hydrocarbons-producing departments, Meta and Casanare, get special attention from national and regional media regarding their share and use of royalty funds. Both have a number of what DNP calls ‘critical’ projects.
The Colombian Oil Engineer Association (ACIPET) said that focusing on the established resources and potential exploration projects must also include an effort to better inform communities and counter misinformation being given about oil activities.