ACP as a source of information
Source: La República – National
Date: March 19
Headline: Government would lose $12 billion with crude at US$25
The crisis of international oil prices, with Brent at US$25 per barrel and WTI at almost US$22, is already putting a large part of the oil-producing and oil-dependent countries in check. The geopolitical tensions between Russia and the Middle East, following the failed OPEC agreements, have exacerbated the situation, at a time when Colombia and the world are struggling to face the advance of Covid-19 and its social implications and the contagion in the economy. (…) The already termed “perfect storm” threatens one of the highest revenues the nation has: its oil income. Although analysts and unions estimate that the lower arrival of resources will mainly be seen in 2021, they warn that this year there will be strong implications from a fiscal point of view. This is because for every dollar that falls on average per year in the price of oil, the country stops receiving between $300 billion and 400 billion, according to the ACP and Campetrol. Responded in: larepublica.co (March 19).
Source: Money – National
Date: March 19
Headline: What will happen with fracking
The collapse in crude prices surprised the oil industry. Covid-19 and OPEC's decisions have created the perfect storm. What future awaits fracking? The global expansion of the coronavirus and the measures –painful but necessary– that governments have taken to contain the epidemic have caused a significant collapse in global crude demand, (…) Francisco José Lloreda, president of the Colombian Petroleum Association (ACP), explained that the current price is not beneficial for the industry or the Government. According to calculations from the association, if this year the price per barrel is around US$50, the Colombian state would stop receiving between $4 billion and $5 billion. And if it reaches US$40, the losses would amount to $8 billion. He predicts that for every dollar that the barrel falls, on average over the course of a year, the country stops receiving US$120 million. (…) Indeed, companies like Ecopetrol, ConocoPhillips, Exxonmobil, and Drumond had already expressed their interest in participating in the pilots. Responded in: dinero.com (March 19).
GREMIO
Source: La República
Date: March 19
Headline: «We do not rule out that other phases of this adjustment and efficiency plan will come»
Just as it did a little less than five years ago, Ecopetrol is already adjusting its strategy to weigh the external shocks of the current situation, the crisis of international prices, and the impact of Covid-19. This week the oil company announced that it will implement an austerity plan aimed at facing “the challenging market conditions,” which is already making calculations not only for companies in the industry but also for governments, banks, and even international organizations. In an interview with LR, Felipe Bayón, president of Ecopetrol, provided an overview of what this new strategy consists of, the new dividend payment proposal, and the main axes on which investments will focus, which they already estimate at US$4.300 billion this year after the reduction of US$1.200 billion due to adjustments.
Source: La República
Date: March 19
Headline: The Colcap fell 47% in a month
The Colombian Stock Exchange (BVC) continues to decline due to market volatility and, this Wednesday, after suspending its operations for 30 minutes to alleviate the debacle, the Colcap fell 10.641% and reached 894.03 points. With the temporary suspension in the previous session, this is already the fifth time in March that the stock exchange has had to suspend its trading due to the negative plunge of the indices. One of them, last Monday the 16th, had to be definitive because the Colcap index fell more than 151%. These actions are permitted by the Single Circular issued by the Stock Exchange. (…) The preferred shares of Davivienda bank continue, with a reduction of 14.521%; Corficolombiana, with -14.171%; the Bogotá Telephone Company (ETB), with -13.201%; Bancolombia, with -12.591%; the preferred shares of Grupo Aval, with -12.571%; and Ecopetrol, with -12.381%.
Source: La República
Date: March 19
Headline: Where will the money for the emergency come from?
Where are we going to get the money to face the impending economic crisis and control Covid-19? To resolve this fundamental question, it must be broken down into other secondary concerns that are no less important: How much do the emergency measures cost? What is the general budget of the Nation for 2020? How much does Ecopetrol contribute to the National Government? How much do the national coffers lose for every dollar that the barrel of oil drops? The answers are precise: the Ministry of Finance has said that the social and economic emergency costs 1.15 trillion, but that there is room, if needed, for up to 1.48 trillion. The budget for the current year is 1.271.7 trillion and was approved at the end of last year with significant cuts without having anticipated that the nation would be hit by low oil prices and the sustained devaluation of the peso; for now, the Government as the largest shareholder of Ecopetrol would receive 1.6.5 trillion with the proposed dividend for this year.
Source: Portafolio
Date: March 19
Headline: The Colcap index, just like in 2009
A new day of pessimism took hold of the Colombian Stock Exchange (BVQ), in line with the behavior that has been seen in most global stock markets. (…) The shares of the state oil company Ecopetrol, the largest company in Colombia, continued to plummet and fell by 12.381% due to the collapse of oil prices.
Source: Dinero
Date: March 19
Headline: The business power of women. Constant pioneer
The first professional choice of Francy Edith Ramírez, vice president of the Eastern Regional of Ecopetrol, was not based on her preferences but on the search for a career that would allow her to earn quickly to financially support her family. That’s why she studied pedagogy and soon became a primary school teacher. A little later her family moved to Neiva and the situation had improved, so she was able to start her second career, this time as a petroleum engineer. At Ecopetrol, she was one of the first female operators in Barrancabermeja, handling the fluids that arrived at the refinery. From there she moved to Putumayo as a supervisor and then, in 2003, became the first female production chief in the 52 years that the company had been operating at that time. Thus, she traveled the country and climbed positions until reaching her current position, which she has held since 2014.
Source: Dinero
Date: March 19
Headline: The second blow. By: Daniel Niño
With the recent drop in oil prices of 48.1% compared to December 2019, a second blow to the Colombian economy has occurred. What implications does it have for the coming years? Let’s do a bit of history to understand the transmission and the phases of the most likely consequences of the recent blow. (…) The origin was the high dependence on oil revenues that were severely reduced initially by a drop of 49.1% in international crude prices and then by a fall in production. Initially, the drop in revenues was close to US$13 billion, but in 2015 the lost revenues totaled US$17.6 billion. The damage became permanent through various routes: one is undoubtedly that at the end of 2019 the oil bill was still lower at US$16.1 billion compared to 2013. (…) To avoid the worst forecasts for growth, the Santos government, through its minister Cárdenas, accelerated public spending despite the drop in fiscal revenues due to lower growth and lower profits from Ecopetrol.
Source: Dinero
Date: March 19
Headline: The storm has arrived!
The coronavirus changed everything: it slowed down consumption, crashed oil prices, skyrocketed the dollar, and collapsed the stock markets. What’s next? It will be hard to forget the second week of March 2020. Perhaps the worst in recent history for the economy, the stock markets worldwide, and global trade. (…) According to former minister Mauricio Cárdenas, between $5 trillion and $8 trillion could be at risk due to the tax reform, and about $6 trillion due to oil prices. How will the Government handle that? What measures will it take? Will there be adjustments to the fiscal rule? (…) The fracking sector could also be affected (see article on page 22). We will have to see what the drop in prices means for the development of this technique in Colombia. For now, the realization of pilot projects is at stake. These do not involve commercial activities, and those who advance them, like Ecopetrol, will have to invest resources close to US$500 million, without seeing a dollar of immediate return. With the drop in crude prices, will the same interest be maintained on this front?.
Source: larepublica.co
Date: March 19
Headline: Canacol Energy reports a 52% increase in gas sales
Canacol Energy reported its financial results and operations for the last quarter of last year, highlighting a 52% increase in gas sales and a 36% increase in Ebitdax. Charle Gamba, president and CEO of the Corporation, commented: “In 2019, the corporation achieved several important objectives regarding the growth of its gas business in Colombia, including a 26% increase in gas sales year over year, related to the expansion of transportation infrastructure, a 12% increase in 2P reserves year over year, related to the ongoing success of exploration and development, the awarding of three new conventional gas exploration blocks in the 2019 exploration bidding round, and the sale of our last remaining oil-producing asset.».
Topics
Source: El Tiempo
Date: March 19
Headline: Wednesday of losses for the markets
Yesterday was another difficult day for the financial and stock markets of the world. Oil prices collapsed to 17-year lows, while stock markets erased Tuesday's gains. (…) The dollar, which registered high volatility, distanced itself from the peso by more than 84 units, reaching 4,128 pesos. This, amid the collapse of crude oil that hit levels not seen in two decades. Brent ended at $24.88 in London, down more than 13 percent, and WTI fell to $20.37, down 24.4 percent. In Europe, the Frankfurt stock exchange fell by 5.56 percent. The Paris stock exchange retreated by 5.94 percent.
Source: La República
Date: March 19
Headline: On the coronavirus and other demons. By: Álvaro Uribe Echeverri
We are living in hysterical times. Waves of collective paranoia embrace humanity more frequently and intensely. (…) Not only the amount of information about the progress of the illness but also the alarmist tone displayed by the media around the globe has generated a snowball worthy of an apocalyptic blockbuster: first, the restrictions on everything that enters and leaves China; consequently, the global demand for commodities falls; then, the stock markets of the world wobble, and soon after, oil prices plummet, which ultimately collapses stock prices.
Source: Portafolio
Date: March 19
Headline: The emergency package. By: Francisco Miranda Hamburger
This Wednesday, President Iván Duque announced an economic aid package under the umbrella of the Economic and Social Emergency, declared last Tuesday to counteract the impacts of the coronavirus covid-19. (…) For example, calculations from the Ministry of Finance estimate that, in a moderate scenario that includes a recovery of oil prices, economic growth “would be affected by around 1 percentage point.”.
Source: Portafolio
Date: March 19
Headline: The price of oil falls to its lowest level in nearly two decades
The price of oil collapsed again yesterday in a market suffering from oversupply and a price war on one side, and from the decline in global demand due to the new coronavirus crisis on the other. In New York, the price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude for April delivery ended at $20.37, a sharp drop of $24.41 to a low not seen since February 2002. Meanwhile, the North Sea Brent crude benchmark for May delivery ended at $24.88 in London, with a drop of more than $131, a low since 2003. This crude is the benchmark used by Colombia. WTI and Brent have lost more than $601 of their value since the last peak in early January.
Institutional
Source: El Colombiano
Date: March 19
Headline: The stock market does not respond well to the virus
It has not yet been established with total certainty what the origin of Covid-19 was. However, the transmission to humans led to the economic behavior of the species also becoming infected, evidenced in the stock markets around the world with days of panic, including the Colombian one. Experts explain that since the trade war, the economy had been diminishing its growth; the rise in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) worldwide last year would be 2.9%, according to the International Monetary Fund. (…) Last year, Ecopetrol reported a profit of 13.25 trillion pesos. In light of this performance, days ago, the Minister of Finance, Alberto Carrasquilla, highlighted the strength of the company and noted that last year the company would have only needed a Brent oil price of $30 to generate profits. However, the former Minister of Mines and Energy, Amylkar Acosta, noted that for every dollar that the price of oil loses, the country sees 420 billion pesos less.
Source: La Patria
Date: March 19
Headline: Gas stations resist lowering prices
“How is it that when they talk about increases, they adjust the price the next day, but when they talk about lowering the price, they act like they don't understand? Those are monopolies.” The complaint is from Abelardo Espitia, who yesterday went to fill up his car at the San Antonio service station. The idea was to fill it up, but after seeing the price, he preferred to put in only $30 thousand. “Let's hope it goes down, let's see who can hold out longer.” (…) According to the Ministry of Mines, the new price of regular gasoline for Manizales would be set at $8.268, a decrease of $1.416 compared to the value reported in February, a reduction of 14.61%.
Source: El Nuevo Día
Date: March 19
Headline: Gasoline in Ibagué is not going down for now
The President of the Republic, Iván Duque, announced that the price of gasoline would drop $1.200 per gallon, while diesel would be reduced by $800 starting March 17. Two days after the new fuel price was supposed to take effect, reductions tied to the low prices of Brent oil have not yet been implemented in Ibagué. According to the prices set by the Ministry of Mines and Energy, the price of a gallon of gasoline in the city is $8.244 and that of diesel is $8.378. However, the prices managed yesterday by gas stations in the Musical City were between a range of $9.000 and $9.300.
Colombian Association of Oil and Gas