Although there has been a slight recovery of oil prices to the high US$30 range, analysts believe that Colombian operators need prices at US$45 or higher to reactivate stalled exploration activity.
The Energy and Mining Planning Unit (UPME) has been moving forward with plans to tender the expansion of gas pipelines to improve the supply of the gas, and now details on the organization of the eventual network have emerged as well.
The shareholder dispute over the restructuring of Pacific Exploration & Production (TSX:PRE) took another turn after its second largest shareholder O’Hara Administration joined a complaint filed by minority shareholders with Colombia’s financial regulator to block a potential deal. Management responded with a lengthy update and defense of the restructuring process.
Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) has opened its application process to accept university and technical students for company internships, and a university scholarship program from Gases de Occidente shows off some of its results. These and other Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) stories in our periodic summary.
The president of the National Hydrocarbons Agency (ANH) Mauricio de la Mora abruptly resigned last week, saying officially that his work at the ANH has been accomplished.
The USO argues that health and environmental issues associated with fracking should move authorities to ban the practice in Colombia.