Last week’s main story was on royalties because the Senate had summoned the Finance and Mining ministries in to explain themselves.
Last week we discussed changes in natural gas production but skipped over the evolution of demand. The research unit of the Ministry of Mines and Energy, UPME, recently published its 2016 overview of the natural gas market, and broke down how consumption of gas has fared in different economic sectors.
Following a long stint as the acting president of the National Hydrocarbons Agency (ANH) and a series of rumors, Orlando Velandia has formally been named the president of the entity.
The director of the National Planning Department (DNP) Simón Gaviría warned that the number of at-risk “critical” royalty projects has grown from 144 at the end of 2015 to 208 on July 31, 2016, another sign that something is wrong with the General Royalty System (SGR).
The offshore industry has become the government’s great hope to add new reserves and keep Colombia’s hydrocarbons self-sufficiency going, but it is no short term bet and there is still structural work to do.
This week talks between the ELN guerrilla and the government were scheduled to start, even though they depend on the release of former congressman Odín Sánchez Montes de Oca. The two negotiating teams have been officially named.