The Colombian Armed Forces recently encountered an antiaircraft battery belonging to the Farc. However the Air Force commander assures that the equipment is old and unlikely to function well. We did not know the Farc had antiaircraft batteries old or otherwise. From a MinDefensa press release with commentary by Hydrocarbons Colombia.
Incidents were down this week, right about the average for the past several weeks. We calculate a 4-week moving average to smooth out weekly variations and although that rose significantly in the run-up to the first round of peace talks, it dropped almost as rapidly to settle at about 40 incidents per week. This value has held for the last four weeks and appears to be the “new normal”. Once again the vast majority of these were the Army continuing to discover camps, minefields and weapons caches so perhaps the Farc are keeping up their truce commitment.
Ecopetrol guarantees that all diesel fuel from January 1st, 2013 will have only 50ppm sulfur. From an Ecopetrol press release with comments by Hydrocarbons Colombia.
Monday December 10, 2012 was the regular “Rendering of Accounts” for the Ministry of Mines and Energy. These sessions are important for the public to understand what has been accomplished and they provide an opportunity for feedback and questions. Unfortunately we struggled to stay awake because MinMinas had virtually nothing new to say about the sector that had not been said at the National Hydrocarbons Agency (ANH) “Rendering of Accounts” session on November 30. We were disappointed.
It was telling that MinMinas reported that President Juan Manuel Santos announced a plan to boost the Putumayo department development. The department is one of the poorest and yet is the focus of much oil exploration and production. The projects initiated or ongoing have to do with issues of energy, roads, health, education, land titling and victims’ restitution. According to Santos, the government will set a special price for gasoline in this border department and there will be permanent electricity in Puerto Asis.
National business magazine Dinero has finally recognized the challenges facing the industry. The article points out that while the oil industry is one of the strongest in the country, there has been no major oil discovery recently, terrorist attacks on pipelines continue, there are delays with the environmental licensing (as we recently reported) and strikes and shut-ins in the oil fields.
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