ACP as a source of information
Source: prensalibrecasanare.com – Regional
Date: April 07
Headline: Frontera Energy delivers 1,200 prevention kits in Casanare
The oil company Frontera Energy reported that it is delivering a humanitarian aid package in order to contribute to the necessary measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19, as well as to address the emergency in Bogotá and its main areas of influence, benefiting nearly 18,000 people. The package includes funds from the company and employees who will make voluntary contributions, mainly for the delivery of 4,580 prevention kits in Casanare, Meta, Sucre, and Putumayo, the donation of protective equipment for medical personnel, and helping to increase the capacity of intensive care units in Bogotá, as it will be the city that will handle the most complex cases. (…) On the other hand, Frontera was part of the companies that, through the Colombian Petroleum Association, donated more than 18,000 units of different protective items for the medical personnel of the department.
Source: Entérese – Regional
Date: April 05
Headline: Donated protective items for handling Covid-19 in Casanare
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to control and reduce the risks of spreading COVID-19 was received by the Public Health Surveillance team of the Department and the managers of Red Salud Casanare and the Regional Hospital (HORO), Leider Yesid Daza and Ronald Roa, respectively, as a result of the efforts made by Governor Salomón Sanabria before the Colombian Petroleum Association (ACP), representing the hydrocarbons sector, in its commitment to managing and mitigating the health emergency facing the country.
GREMIO
Source: El Espectador
Date: April 08
Headline: Fiscal accounts
The current account deficit is one of the problems of the Colombian economy that makes the system more vulnerable to shocks such as falling oil prices and the emergency due to COVID-19. This fragility may concern credit rating agencies. Analysis. In the midst of the harshest economic uncertainty, which has a strong flavor of global recession due to the coronavirus and the collapse of oil prices, (…) Colombia is a country that depends on oil, which makes it a sensitive target to drops in crude prices. Oil transfers are estimated at nearly $30 trillion each year. Oil and its derivatives represent 40.9 % of the total exports of Colombia. (…) Last year, the Government received from Ecopetrol US$26.3 trillion in taxes, royalties, and dividends. According to the company's own accounts, if the contracting of goods and services throughout the entire chain is added, the resources that the oil company injected into the economy were $45 trillion.
Source: La República
Date: April 08
Headline: Crisis cycle for oil. By: Carlos Alberto Leal Niño
After the 2015 crisis, and when the value chain of the sector was affected by the impact caused by the reduction in prices due to the increase in production from unconventional fields, and the fragile global economic stability, (…) For our case, the impacts include the decrease in oil revenue by up to $15.8 trillion, broken down into the cessation of dividends from Ecopetrol (…) Other actions for cost optimization could be considered in reducing the quality of the crude oil for sale and disposal water to acceptable limits to lower processing costs, minimizing rates in the transportation of crude oil by pipelines and tank trucks, the variation of rates for specialized services tied to crude prices, the optimization of work equipment for operations, and the relocation of personnel to new fronts.
Source: La República
Date: April 08
Headline: «We will have a recycling plant in Bogotá»
Esenttia, a subsidiary of Ecopetrol dedicated to the production of raw materials for the plastic industry, announced that it will prioritize the national market to supply the food and health sectors, in order to mitigate the emergency caused by Covid-19. Juan Diego Mejía, president of the company, spoke about how polypropylene is used for medical supplies and the recycling plans they have. What is Esenttia's initiative for Covid-19? Esenttia supplies raw materials that our clients use to manufacture products that help solve many of the health and food problems caused by Covid-19.
Source: La República
Date: April 08
Headline: The best firms in the Lacca ranking
Philippi Prietocarrizosa Ferrero DU & Uría (PPU), Brigard Urrutia, and Gómez Pinzón were chosen as the three favorite firms in the local market for the 100 largest companies in the region, according to the latest ranking prepared by the Latin American Association of Corporate Lawyers (Lacca, for its acronym in English). (…) The Lacca ranking studies the legal structures of some of the most important companies with a presence in Latin America, such as Petrobras, Fiat, or Louis Dreyfus. For this edition, it was not fleeting to name Colombia as a focal point of great interest for foreign investment projects, which have been advised by the firms in the country.
Source: Vanguardia Liberal
Date: April 08
Headline: The Ecopetrol Polyclinic in Barrancabermeja prepares to conduct COVID-19 diagnostic tests
An agreement signed between Ecopetrol and the National Institute of Health will allow the Polyclinic to conduct the first coronavirus diagnostic tests in Barrancabermeja in a couple of weeks. Barrancabermeja gathers courage to win the battle against coronavirus, after this week the first positive case was reported in the ‘Beautiful daughter of the sun’. (…) Meanwhile, after the confirmation that the positive case corresponds to a worker from the refinery, Ecopetrol specified that it is not lowering its guard in the industrial complex with the control and prevention actions for COVID-19, which we have implemented since the beginning of the quarantine. “At Ecopetrol, since March 16, a high percentage of workers began remote work and since that moment control measures have been strengthened,” sources from the state oil company stated.
Source: El Frente
Date: April 08
Headline: Consolidated public hospital network of Barrancabermeja
After carrying out the necessary administrative and financial procedures, the new hospital infrastructure will come into operation at a time when the District needs to strengthen the installed health capacity due to the health emergency caused by Covid-19. (…) Request to Ecopetrol. Likewise, the mayor invited Ecopetrol to fulfill the commitment made in previous years, with the installation of air conditioning in this health center, thus providing timely and quality service to the Barranqueña community. With this work, the health center not only completely renews its facilities but also increases its built area almost five times, as confirmed by the District Secretary of Health, Luis Fernando Castro.
Source: vanguardia.com
Date: April 08
Headline: First death reported from Covid-19 in Santander
In the early hours of this Wednesday, April 8, medical personnel from a clinic in Bucaramanga confirmed the death of a 49-year-old man who was in the Intensive Care Unit after being confirmed positive for the pandemic. According to the mayor of Barrancabermeja, Alfonso Eljach, this is case number 13 in Santander confirmed last Monday, April 6; a 49-year-old man in Barrancabermeja, who was recovering in the ICU. The man, who worked with Ecopetrol in Barrancabermeja for 22 years, had other pre-existing conditions before testing positive for coronavirus.
Source: llanoalmundo.com
Date: April 08
Headline: FRONTERA ENERGY delivers a humanitarian aid package to Meta and other areas of influence
Frontera Energy is delivering a humanitarian aid package in order to contribute to the necessary measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19, as well as to address the emergency in Bogotá and its main areas of influence, benefiting nearly 18,000 people. The package includes funds from the company and from employees who will make voluntary contributions, mainly for the delivery of 4,580 prevention kits in Meta, Casanare, Sucre, and Putumayo, the donation of protective equipment for medical personnel, and helping to increase the capacity of intensive care units in Bogotá, as it will be the city that will handle the most complex cases.
Topics
Source: El Tiempo
Date: April 08
Headline: Dollar loses about 171 pesos in 4 sessions and falls below 4,000
The dollar in Colombia completed four consecutive sessions yesterday in which it has lost nearly 171 pesos, allowing it to settle below 4,000 pesos. Just yesterday, the U.S. currency fell more than 68 pesos in its average quotation, so the official rate for today is 3,910.15 pesos. This decline, which reached a total of 78 pesos to 3,900.1, the minimum rate, was recorded at a time when oil prices fell sharply. Brent fell 3.61% to US$31.87.
Source: La República
Date: April 08
Headline: March inflation: first effects of the spread of SARS-Cov2. By: Mauricio Santamaría
Last Saturday, Dane reported that the monthly variation of the CPI in March 2020 was 0.561%, higher than the market forecast (0.451%) and the result of March 2019 (0.431%). (…) This is largely explained by the slowdown in energy inflation (2.61% vs. 3.91% a month ago), due to reductions in fuel prices (close to 1,000/galon for both regular gasoline and diesel). This is in line with lower oil prices (averaging US$34/barrel-Brent in March, equivalent to a drop of -50% compared to the end of 2019).
Source: La República
Date: April 08
Headline: U.S. oil production will fall
U.S. crude oil production would drop by 470,000 barrels per day (bpd) and demand would plummet by about 1.3 million bpd in 2020, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Tuesday, as the coronavirus shakes the markets. The EIA also reduced its forecast for global oil demand growth for 2020 from 5.6 million bpd to 5.23 million bpd, but predicted a rebound for global and U.S. demand in 2021.
Source: El Frente
Date: April 08
Headline: High strategy? By: Fernando Cepeda Ulloa
In less than a week, the U.S. government has made three highly significant decisions for the hemisphere and, perhaps, for the world. First, the accusations from the Department of Justice against fourteen important officials of Maduro's ‘government,’ the same one disqualified as a narcoterrorist. (…) It is worth remembering what experts in the oil issue say. The pandemic and the oil price war have led energy markets to a crisis that would have been deemed unnecessary at the beginning of this year. There is a collapse in demand. And the United States, which due to fracking went from being the main oil importer to being the largest exporter, has been severely affected. (Foreign Affairs, Daniel Yergin, April 2, 2020). The same author adds that the coronavirus caused oil demand to drop to an unprecedented level, 20% of the total.
Source: El Pilón
Date: April 08
Headline: Sweating oil. By: Amylkar D. Acosta
If there is one thing that characterizes oil prices, it is their volatility, which is determined by market fundamentals and/or by the vice versa of geopolitics. According to the IEA, it was expected that, as a result of the cooling of the global economy, attributable to the trade war that President Donald Trump had declared on the rest of the world, oil demand in 2020 would decrease, for the first time since 2009, by approximately 90,000 barrels/day. (…) Given this situation, the Colombian economy will have to endure this year a severe external shock due to the drop in oil prices, which could push the current account deficit of the balance of payments up to 6 %, and exacerbate the fiscal deficit and even lead to the greatest slowdown in GDP growth. In short, this drop in prices has made the Colombian economy sweat oil.
Source: prensalibrecasanare.com
Date: April 08
Headline: General Luis Cardozo received the ‘Ramón Nonato Pérez’ decoration’
The decoration «Great Order of Civic Merit Ramón Nonato Pérez» was awarded this Tuesday by the Government of Casanare to General Luis Emilio Cardozo Santamaría, outgoing commander of the VIII Division of the National Army, in recognition of his work for the safety of the inhabitants of the Department. (…) Cardozo bids farewell to the Orinoquía after a year at the helm of this organic unit, achieving during his management 1,185 impacts on illegal armed organizations, the neutralization of 77 terrorist actions with a prevention effectiveness of 67% in the Caño Limón Coveñas Pipeline and 98 % in the Bicentennial Pipeline.
Institutional
Source: La República
Date: April 08
Headline: Oil production will decrease 12% this year with Brent at US$25
The reactivation of the oil industry that the Ministry of Mines and Energy had been betting on since last year would not achieve its consolidation in 2020. The current price crisis and the emergence of Covid-19 have put the investments of companies in jeopardy, so the short and medium-term outlook does not reflect good indicators for the sector. This was perhaps one of the alerts raised by the Colombian Chamber of Oil Goods and Services (Campetrol), which in its latest report detailed that in a critical scenario, with Brent at US$25 per barrel, national production would decrease by up to 100,000 barrels per day, reaching as low as 786,000. (…) Additionally, despite the fact that the Government has not yet adjusted its projections in the sector, a maximum of 50 new exploratory wells would be reached, five below the initial estimates of the National Hydrocarbons Agency (ANH).
Source: El Frente
Date: April 08
Headline: Incompetence. By: Jaime Galvis Vergara
Something that is increasingly noticeable in the administrative management of Colombia is the lack of efficiency. In that parish life of Colombia in the 19th century and early 20th century, the bureaucracy was very small, the ministerial cabinet was composed of a few lawyer friends of the President, among whom there was more of a social gathering atmosphere than a ceremonial one. (…) The trend towards illogical appointments has continued in all governments, a chemical engineer who was president of Ecopetrol then became Minister of Public Works. (…) The erratic management of the Ministry of Mines and Energy, where there are no petroleum engineers, mining engineers, or geologists among the high command, has led to absurd campaigns such as promoting the Pacific Platform for oil exploration, a costly plan that ended up achieving nothing. At the height of oil prices, the processing was absolutely sluggish.
Colombian Association of Oil and Gas