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The government and the Farc were supposed to resume their discussions in Havana on Tuesday but the meetings were put off until the third week of April. The Farc were thus unconstrained by the need to stick to the agreed agenda and so issued a disturbing joint statement with their sometimes allies / sometimes enemies the ELN. The government team urged everyone to calm down about Farc statements made outside the negotiating table.

As reported by Dinero, Ricardo Arias Mora, president of the National Savings Fund (FNA), announced that the entity will join with several oil companies to facilitate homeownership for some 9,000 oil workers in the fields Rubiales, Quifa and Pirirí in Puerto Gaitan, Meta department.

The French oil giant Total has had an important investment in Colombia. But its recently published 2012 Annual Report shows that commitment is dwindling and is now quite minor. Having sold its long-time interest in Cuisana to Emerald last October, it is left with participation in exploration block in Niscota and a small piece of the Ocensa pipeline. What would be its next move?

We made somewhat light of Ecopetrol’s announcement in March of a well with just over 200bd production. Now here is another announcement which is 3x the size! This is an improvement but it is still only a 0.1% increase in the company’s production. Like the last announcement, this one got wide coverage in the Colombian press. From an Ecopetrol press release, translated and with commentary by Hydrocarbons Colombia.

Every Monday we publish the Petroleum Workers’ Union’s (USO) latest complaints about the hydrocarbons industry’s treatment of its workers. To read their press releases, one would imagine slavery or the Gulag archipelago or some other Dickensian scenes from the past. Here is the international organization charged with protecting workers’ rights giving the country a pat on the back. From a Ministry of Labor press release, translated and with commentary by Hydrocarbons Colombia.

The oil and gas industry calls the region “Los Llanos” and it is a flat plane (llanos) extending to and beyond the border with Venezuela. But viewed ecologically it is part of the Orinoco basin, the great river that defines part of the border and eventually flows into the Atlantic Ocean on the eastern side of Venezuela. Five rivers flow through the Colombian Llanos and into the Orinoco including such well-known industry names as the Meta, the Arauca and the Guaviare. The economic potential of the region is huge from hydrocarbons to agriculture to rare earths. Pacific Rubiales, the ANDI (the Colombian businesspersons association) and Semana magazine recently convened a forum on the region’s future. From a Pacific Rubiales press release, translated and with commentary by Hydrocarbons Colombia.