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Alan Jara, Governor of Meta, told El Espectador more about the refinery that will begin construction this year in Meta. According Jara, the project is expected to be completed in late 2015. The refinery construction is in charge of the Llaso Company, managed by Ricardo Rodriguez. Llaso emerged from the partnership between the U.S. Company Solver Structural Partnership and Petroleos del Llano, created by the Government of the Meta in 2012.

As we recently reported, this year the diesel fuel may have only 50ppm sulfur, however according to national business paper Portafolio, Tomás González, Deputy Minister of Energy says this measure cost Ecopetrol more than a CoP$1T that went into expanding the production capacity of the Barrancabermeja refinery and associated transport logistics. Gonzalez added that it is important to improve engine performance and reduce exhaust emissions, as required by the Air Quality Law.

After the January 4 attack on the Coveñas-Cano Limón pipeline in the Arauca department, Ecopetrol began manual oil extraction in the Arauca River. According to the company about 150 people are working on decontamination. Edward Portillo, departmental coordinator of the committee on risk management, told Caracol Radio “the extraction is with buckets and cans, and then Ecopetrol collects the crude and burns it”.

Incidents were up slightly again this week but well within recent variation. Our 4-week Moving Average has dropped continuously since the week of October 20th, except for a small blip the week of December 1st. It now sits at 24 incidents per week down from a peak of 58 back in October.

Ecopetrol – the state-owned oil company and the only company with significant R&D investment, receives five new patents. From an Ecopetrol press release, translated and with commentary by Hydrocarbons Colombia.

According to a Central Bank report, the the oil, mining and quarrying sector accounted for over half of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Colombia between January and September 2012. The commerce and hotels sector accounted for 9% while transport and communications accounted for 10% of FDI. The FDI for electricity, gas and water was 5% and 10% for manufacturing. Meanwhile, other sectors contributed 12% of the FDI.