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During the National Hydrocarbons Agency (ANH) conference in Cartagena last week, Ecopetrol and the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) signed an agreement to develop exploration and production opportunities both in Colombia and other countries. Here is an Ecopetrol press release on the agreement, translated and with commentary by Hydrocarbons Colombia.

There are many arguments about whether the 2012 Round (Phase I) was a success or failure but with only 5 of 30 blocks assigned there is no doubt about the non-conventional blocks.

We attended the first pass at the 2012 Round on Wednesday October 17th. There will be a second round on November 28, 2012 where the same pre-qualified companies will have a chance to bid on blocks left unassigned in the completed phase.

Eduardo Junguito had 15 minutes to address the ANH conference in Cartegena today. He used about 25 minutes and had material for an hour. Yet another player in the complex and overlapping responsibilities for community relations and the extractive industries, Junguito has an ambitious agenda that not all would agree with. Still there were some positive messages of intent even if practical demonstrations of implementation were lacking.

We were very disappointed with National Environmental Licensing Agency head Luz Helena Sarmiento’s last minute participation in a ministerial panel yesterday. The industry leaders we spoke to afterward were perhaps even more disappointed. Maybe she just did not want to anticipate her scheduled presentation for today. This time she came out full of specific information on process improvements and did so full of self-deprecating humor that had a potentially hostile crowd laughing along.

A panel discussion that was scheduled to feature the Ministers of Finance, Energy and Environment was well attended at a very senior level during the National Hydrocarbons Agency (ANH) conference held yesterday in Cartegena. However attendees came away disappointed. For one thing the MinAmbiente did not show up at all. For another there were a very limited number of new policy statements or clarifications of recent declarations.