Government commentators and the local press blame the slide in oil prices for the significant devaluation of the Colombian peso seen in the past 18 months. The graph shows the kind of charts used to illustrate the point. We worked a little harder with some more rigorous statistical analysis and found that oil price movements are indeed important, explaining about 40% of exchange rate movements but this has only been the case since oil prices ‘fell off a cliff’ in the middle of last year.
The Puerto Bahia port facility has presented the results of its first six months of operation, in which it says it has exported more than 640,000 barrels of crude on four tankers, as well as 14 ships with general cargo.
In the latest advance from Havana, government and Farc negotiators announced that they have reached an agreement on both transitional justice and victim restitution.
Equion Energy president María Victoria Riaño said that the company is passing through a complex moment and is finishing a round of layoffs to cut costs. She also lamented the slow progress and community problems that prevented seismic exploration during the boom times when prices were high.
After a necessary change in the rules, which allowed individuals access to the recently-opened Mexican oil market, and after two disappointing Round One auctions, the third phase was held yesterday (December 15, 2015). All 25 available contracts were awarded, making it is the most successful round so far.
Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) says that it will deepen its spending cuts and austerity program and reduce its investments in 2016 to US$4.8B, in a plan that looks to keep production at a similar level of 2015.