GasOur estimates of gas production are trending downward. The government says the issue is lower demand but that still is worrying.
Ecopetrol joins the UN’s “CEO Water Mandate” to examine water usage and reacts to fish deaths near the Barrancabermeja refinery, while Parex promotes tree planting. These and other stories in our environmental round up.
Colombia’s Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology, and Environmental Studies (IDEAM) says that the potential for disastrous effects from the “El Niño” phenomenon appear less likely as the weather system weakens, but calls on authorities to not let down their guard.
Strong growth has made the oil industry a target of “political and economic appetites”, who have managed to install a transactional relationship with the industry that affects its viability, but the post-conflict scenario will only prove more challenging, says the former head of the Colombian Petroleum Association (ACP) Alejandro Martinez.
The trend keeps going upward although, this week, incidents were down again to 38 still well above long-term averages although below trend for the first time in several weeks.
As unconventional production moves forward in a number of production blocks around the country, Colombia’s environmental movement has taken notice, with the first skeptics looking at fracking practices in the VSM 16 block in Huila.