Last Friday, Defense Minister Juan Carlos Pinzón addressed the National Hydrocarbons Agency (ANH) conference in Cartegena. The speech was full of statistical information and the crowd gave him a standing ovation. This is the MinDefensa press release on the speech, translated and with commentary by Hydrocarbons Colombia.
We have been tracking incidents near hydrocarbons infrastructure since the beginning of 1Q12. The Colombian government and the Colombian Petroleum Association track events where the infrastructure itself is attacked. We use a radius of 20km and count any event that involves terrorism of one form or another. We believe this gives a more accurate picture of the risk associated with a particular area. It also allows us to assess the risk of zones that do not yet have infrastructure, such as an exploration block.
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.