ACP as a source of information
Source: El Nuevo Siglo – National
Date: April 01
Headline: Oil companies produce at a loss: Lloreda
There is no truce for the oil sector. What at the beginning of the year seemed like a period of transition and improvement in investments and revenues, in less than three months practically everything changed and turned into one of the worst nightmares. (…) With this outlook, the president of the Colombian Petroleum Association (ACP), Francisco José Lloreda, was categorical: “no barrel of oil is profitable in Colombia.” According to the leader, the situation of the sector converged due to two enormous impacts, on one side the price war currently being fought in the world between Russian producers and the countries grouped in OPEC, and a deep decrease in consumption as a result of COVID-19. (…) For a few weeks now we have been reviewing measures with the Ministry of Mines and Energy and with the National Hydrocarbons Agency (ANH), among other entities. (…) FJLL: Ecopetrol has already announced that it will reduce the investment program by US$1.200 million. I have no doubt that the investment in the exploitation of private companies, which is US$ 700 million, will be affected. Responded in: elnuevosiglo.com.co (March 31).
Source: Forbes.co – National
Author: Francisco José Lloreda Mera
Date: April 01
Headline: Price war and pandemic: what is at stake
In the first quarter of the year, we saw how a ‘perfect storm’ came together that put the global economy in check: the pandemic of a new coronavirus, COVID-19, which has affected oil demand projections, as well as a crude oil price war unleashed after the last meeting of producing countries in Vienna. The result of these circumstances translated into an oversupply that has prices at rock bottom. (…) This situation has led the Government and the industry to examine shock measures and to put structural issues back on the table that prevent Colombia from being more competitive, given that producing oil and gas in the country is comparatively expensive, especially due to the high cost of transportation and the conflict in the operational areas.
GREMIO
Source: La República
Date: April 01
Headline: Esenttia will contribute to the production of face masks
Esenttia, a company of the Ecopetrol Group, reported that it has made available to the country all the production required for the development of plastic products used in the food and health sectors. The company's output can reach up to 40,000 tons per month. Juan Diego Mejía, president of Esenttia, said that polypropylene is key, for example, for face masks and syringes.
Source: La República
Date: April 01
Headline: The balances were positive
Traditionally, the brokerage firm Casa de Bolsa conducts an analysis of how corporate results from the previous year fared for those companies that are issuers in the capital markets. The firm's balance was that most were positive, such as those of Ecopetrol and Grupo Éxito and ISA, two of three companies with the Nation as the majority shareholder. (GF)
Source: La República
Date: April 01
Headline: Ratings of 30% of companies in the region are at risk according to Fitch
Companies in the region continue to be in check due to the measures that have been adopted to contain the spread of Covid-19. This is reflected in an analysis by Fitch Ratings which highlights that “in total, the ratings of 25% to 30% of the corporate portfolio they manage in Latin America would be at risk due to government linkage or the operations focused in the country that the companies have.” (…) An example of the previous situation is reflected in the way companies like Pemex from Mexico, Ecopetrol from Colombia, and Petrobras from Brazil operate, firms that are not only hit by the impact of the virus on the economies of their countries but also by the war between Russia and Saudi Arabia which has led to the price of a barrel of oil in both references being quoted near US$20 or below.
Source: Portafolio
Date: April 01
Headline: Oil: the collapse continues
International oil prices recorded their worst quarterly drop in history yesterday. In just three months, both WTI crude and Brent lost two-thirds of the value with which they started this year. While WTI closed at just over 20 dollars, Brent dropped to 22.74 dollars. (…) The consequences of this global situation are being felt harshly in Colombia. Government finances are very dependent on oil prices. Although Ecopetrol has adopted significant transformations in its operation to reach a price of 30 dollars per barrel to generate profits, if current levels persist, there would be no profits for the State next year.
Source: Portafolio
Date: April 01
Headline: Intermunicipal buses are already losing more than $140,000 million
Just as has happened in the air transport sector and in companies dedicated to individual (taxis) and special services, intermunicipal bus companies are going through dire times due to the coronavirus, as their activity is practically minimal and the different terminals in the country show a desolate picture. (…) “A season like Holy Week is key for us, as it helps cover months of low demand like February,” says Atuesta. However, other businesses that Copetrán has - such as cargo - continue to operate to transport medicines and food. But on the side of hydrocarbon transport, things have not gone so well, as contracts with important fuel companies like Terpel, Primax, Chevron, among others, have been halted.
Source: El Colombiano
Date: April 01
Headline: Brotherhood in the midst of the emergency
As days go by, positive news continues to arrive from different sectors of the industry that want to lend a hand in the context that the country is experiencing due to the coronavirus. Food, medical equipment, and even plastics are the new contributions that companies announce to face the situation and say together #WeGetThroughThisTogether. This is the case of Esenttia, a petrochemical company that is part of the Ecopetrol Group and that made available to the country “all the production that is required for the development of plastic products used in the food and health sectors.”.
Source: El Colombiano
Date: April 01
Headline: The effects of cheap oil
Oil prices fell last Monday to their lowest level in eighteen years. That day, the barrel of the Brent reference, that of Colombia, closed at US$22.7, a drop of 8.7 %, when during the day it reached US$21.65 dollars. The decline occurs because the global oil storage capacity is being filled up due to the drop in demand and the large amount of crude offered by Saudi Arabia and Russia. An unprecedented oversupply is being created at a time when global oil consumption, which in 2019 was 100 million barrels per day, has dropped by 4 % in the first quarter of 2020 compared to the same period the previous year and may fall between 10 and 25 % in the coming months, according to various analysts, worsening the situation. (…) For the Colombian economy, the sustained drop in oil prices is felt, primarily, on the finances of Ecopetrol and other oil companies.
Topics
Source: El Tiempo
Date: April 01
Headline: Oil spill on the road
For several hours yesterday, the Bogotá – Girardot road was closed at kilometer 84 due to the overturning of a truck transporting oil. The driver was injured.
Source: La República
Date: April 01
Headline: Macroeconomic suffering index: effects of SARS-Cov2 in 2020. By: Mauricio Santamaría and Carlos Felipe Prada
2020 had started with favorable prospects for Colombia, where we expected the trend of economic recovery observed in 2018-2019 to continue consolidating. However, the macroeconomic outlook has changed radically in recent weeks due to the shocks generated by the global spread of Sars-Cov2 and the oil price war (averaging US$22-30/barrel-Brent since mid-March, a drop of 55%-65% compared to the close of 2019). (…) That better performance of the ISM was influenced, particularly, by the results of the period 2010-2014, largely due to the super cycle of commodities, with high oil prices (averaging US$102/barrel-Brent) and coal (US$90/ton).
Source: La República
Date: April 01
Headline: OPEC production rose in March from 2009 lows
OPEC's oil production rebounded in March from its lowest level in over a decade, as Saudi Arabia increased its pumping after the collapse of the OPEC-led pact to cut supplies, which offset further declines in Libya, Iran, and Venezuela. On average, the group extracted 27.93 million barrels per day (bpd) last month, according to the survey, an increase of 90,000 bpd compared to the unadjusted figure for February. The agreement between OPEC and exporters led by Russia, an alliance known as OPEC+, was broken on March 6, precipitating a collapse in prices, already depressed by the coronavirus outbreak. Brent is trading below US$22 per barrel, the lowest since 2002.
Source: Portafolio
Date: April 01
Headline: Markets close the quarter registering historic declines
The emergence of the global coronavirus pandemic has caused world markets to record some of the worst performances in decades during the first three months of 2020, while for others, they had never experienced such losses in a quarter. (…) But losses were not only seen in the stock market. For example, the price of oil had never recorded a similar drop in history in a single quarter. The price of Brent accumulated a depreciation of 66,77% between January and March, falling from US$68.44 to US$22.74. (…) Regarding oil, combined with the situation, the price war between OPEC and Russia was the catalyst for significant declines.
Source: El Colombiano
Date: April 01
Headline: «The Colombian economy faces a challenging period» By: Amylkar Acosta
“In this context, the Colombian economy will have to endure this year an external shock due to the very severe drop in oil prices, after closing the previous year with twin deficits: a 4.3 % deficit in the current account of the balance of payments and an apparent fiscal deficit of 2.5%. If oil prices remain around US$30 per barrel for the rest of the year, which is very likely, and given that this line of exports represents approximately 40 %, it is feared that the current account deficit could exceed 5 % (¡!). It goes without saying that it will also impact the growth rate of the economy, as for every US$10 that the price of crude oil decreases, it reduces GDP growth by 0.4 percentage points.”.
Source: Vanguardia Liberal
Date: April 01
Headline: Trump and Putin seek to stop the collapse of oil prices
Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, discussed the collapse of crude oil prices and the Coronavirus pandemic, at a time when the U.S. president said that Moscow is asking for relief from sanctions against it. The two heads of state “agreed on the importance of stability in global energy prices,” according to a statement from the White House, although the phone conversation did not manage to stop the collapse of crude prices, which hit a 18-year low last Monday. (…) Saudi Arabia announced that it intends to increase oil exports to a record 10.6 million barrels per day starting in May, when just a few months ago it was only exporting seven.
Source: Vanguardia Liberal
Date: April 01
Headline: The day after tomorrow. By. Isaí Fuentes Galván
Have you thought about what the world will be like after this pandemic? What effects will living through this confinement have on us? What does it feel like to be locked up out of fear of death? What do we think now about the state, family, and private property? Will this existential health crisis make us rethink the world, what we do, who we are, what is truly valuable, what is real? (…) For now, I believe that our mother earth has fasted, has purged, like almost all living organisms. She is alive and I think she is upset with us, with fracking, with pollution, with our greed, with our arrogance, with all our abuses.
Institutional
Source: El Tiempo
Date: April 01
Headline: Crude oil production fell
In February 2020, it was 878,339 barrels per average day, a reduction of 1.61% compared to the same month in 2019 (892,639 barrels). Gas production grew by 6.21%, according to the Ministry of Mines.
Source: La República
Date: April 01
Headline: Oil production fell 1.61% in February, registering 878,389 barrels per day
The Ministry of Mines and Energy announced the production of gas and oil in February 2020. In the case of crude oil, the average daily barrels reached 878,389, which represented a decrease of 1.61% compared to the average recorded in the same month of 2019, which was 892,689. The ministry noted that «the decrease in production was mainly due to natural decline, public order issues, and failures during operations in fields such as Cohembí (Putumayo), Akacías, Chichimene, Castilla (Acacías, Meta), and Chiricoca (Casanare), among others.».
Source: Portafolio
Date: April 01
Headline: Crude oil production in February decreased by 1.61%
The drop in international oil prices is already starting to take a toll on the country's hydrocarbon operations. The recent report from the Ministry of Mines and Energy (MME) indicates that crude oil production in February was 873,389 barrels per average day (bpd), which means a decrease of 1.61% compared to the same month in 2019, which was 892,689 bpd. (…) According to the MME, the decrease in production was mainly due to natural decline, public order issues, and failures during operations in fields such as Cohembí (Putumayo), Akacías, Chichimene, Castilla (Acacías, Meta), and Chiricoca (Casanare), among others.
Source: El Frente
Date: April 01
Headline: The octopus. By: Jaime Galvis Vergara
Among all the existing fauna, there is a very interesting animal in its anatomy and physiology, it is the octopus, among mollusks it stands out for its multiple skills to hunt and also to avoid being hunted. (…) Disputes between the official tentacles are very frequent, very often an agency of the Ministry of Mines and Energy grants a mining concession and then a tentacle of the Ministry of the Environment cancels it arguing “environmental damage” or in other cases a tentacle of the Ministry of the Interior prevents its granting because the area belongs to racial communities or opportunists. There are episodes in which the National Hydrocarbons Agency signs an exploration and oil exploitation contract with a company and the Ministry of the Environment or the National Environmental Licensing Agency denies it for any pretext. This recently happened with the Hupecol firm in the Guaviare area.
Colombian Association of Oil and Gas