ACP as a source of information
GREMIO
Source: Portafolio
Date: June 24
Headline: Debts would lead Bioenergy's plant to its liquidation
Certainly, in the coming days, the liquidation of the largest agro-industrial complex in Colombia will begin. The imminent liquidation of Bioenergy could go down in history as the failure of the most ambitious project that would drive the agro-business development of the country. (…) The premature demise of this company, located in Puerto López-Meta, would have significant impacts on the Altillanura, given the hundreds of jobs it generates and the sinking of the investment made by several companies that supply Bioenergy with part of the sugarcane used for its industrial process. In this same sense, investors in the field will receive a discouraging message upon witnessing the collapse of the pioneering agro-industrial project, which the Government itself bet on through Ecopetrol, turning this oil company into the owner of almost all the shares of Bioenergy, perhaps in its eagerness to venture into agro-industry and biofuels.
Source: El Colombiano
Date: June 24
Headline: The stock market fell yesterday by 1.561%
The main stock index, the Colcap, opens today at 1,143.28 units after Tuesday's session in which the most traded stocks were the preferred and ordinary shares of Bancolombia and Ecopetrol. The most valued was the preferred share of Corficolombiana (5.62%). Avianca contracted by 8.09%.
Source: El Heraldo
Date: June 24
Headline: “The 1.4 trillion that did not reach the people”
Several congressmen from different parties criticized the way the Government has managed resources for addressing the emergency due to the coronavirus pandemic. (…) In turn, Senator Antonio Sanguino, from the Alianza Verde party, warned about possible privatizations of assets: “Are they playing monopoly with the nation's assets abusing the COVID emergency? They have taken advantage of the emergency to privatize and sell assets of the Nation that belong to all Colombians, such as the financial holding, the Banco Agrario, among others, declared mixed entities.” Luis Fernando Velasco, a senator from the Liberal Party, agreed on this: “Decree 811 of the emergency self-empowered the Government to sell public companies, especially the Cenit subsidiary of Ecopetrol.”.
Source: El Heraldo
Date: June 24
Headline: The plane is not mine! By: Amylkar D. Acosta
In recent days, consultant Mauricio Cabrera titled his opinion column saying that “Avianca must be rescued.” And I would add that not only Avianca but also Latam and the other airlines that connect Colombia and Colombia with the world. And more than rescuing these companies, it is about protecting the 600,000 jobs that, directly and indirectly, they generate. Moreover, air transport, like other modes of transport, is an essential monitored service and is what sets in motion the axes of the national economy; it is the great articulator of the productive ecosystem. (…) It is extremely concerning that this Decree leaves a crack for the eventual privatization of ISA or Ecopetrol when it refers to the authority to alienate “the State's shareholding…that it holds in a certain company.”.
Source: Vanguardia Liberal
Date: June 24
Headline: Opposition calls for investigation of COVID-19 contracts
Although the legislative period has ended, the opposition to the Government remains active and is now asking the General Comptroller of the Republic to monitor all the investments made by the national Government to address the Coronavirus pandemic, a situation in which they do not rule out that there may have even been a “feast” with the money. This was expressed by senators from various parties in a virtual press conference, including Roy Barreras, Rodrigo Lara, Jorge Robledo, Antonio Sanguino, Iván Cepeda, and Iván Marulanda, among others. (…) The liberal senator, Luis Fernando Velasco, questioned decree 811 of June 4, in which the National Government enabled the possibility of selling some national assets such as Ecopetrol to obtain additional resources for pandemic response.
Source: Vanguardia Liberal
Date: June 24
Headline: Dialogue table allowed the reactivation of activities in Nafta-1
The situation that had existed since June 14 in the Nafta-1 Project in Puerto Parra has been resolved. They say that people understand each other through conversation, and this phrase perfectly fits the resolution of the labor conflict that had blocked oil operations in the Nafta-1 project, located in the municipality of Puerto Parra. As explained by Ecopetrol in a press release, the dialogue table, which included representatives from the community, the Mayor's Office, the Council, and the Personería, as well as representatives from the Provincial Attorney's Office, the Ministry of Labor, delegates from the Public Employment Service, and Ecopetrol, bore fruit.
Source: El Pilón
Date: June 24
Headline: Scientific research on turtles in Cesar on the verge of extinction
After six years of observation, confrontation, and analysis, as part of an agreement between Ecopetrol and the Pedagogical and Technological University of Colombia, seven research books have been published that showcase biodiversity studies conducted in the departments of Cesar, Magdalena, Santander, Casanare, and Boyacá. (…) “The researchers” objective was to restore the ecosystem so that the survival of the turtle occurs under optimal conditions, actions aimed at comprehensive biodiversity management and not just the repopulation of the species. This project is a first effort to support the Chimichagua community in building community actions to advance towards the restoration of the turtle's habitat," stated Mónica Bayona, biodiversity leader at Ecopetrol.
Source: eldiariodelllano.com
Date: June 24
Headline: Tauramena and Monterrey will have a power outage on June 25
The Casanare Energy Company ENERCA informs users of the electric service in the urban and rural areas of the municipalities of Tauramena and Monterrey that this Thursday, June 25, 2020, from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm, preventive maintenance will be carried out on the electrical networks of the 34.5KV and 13.2KV circuits from the Monterrey substation to the Tauramena substation. (…) According to the above, it is necessary to suspend the electric service in the following sectors: Urban and rural areas of the municipalities of Tauramena and Monterrey. Regulated Users: Ecopetrol Altos del Porvenir V, Comcel Cas Silvadero, National Army of Colombia Battalion Tauramena, Comcel Tauramena 2, Comcel Monterrey.
Topics
Source: El Tiempo
Date: June 24
Headline: They find an ACPM stash
After weeks of monitoring, the Fiscal and Customs Police (Polfa) located an illegal fuel stash in the El Juncal district of Aguachica, Cesar. More than 8,000 gallons of ACPM fuel “in terrible conditions” were stored at this site, said General Gustavo Franco, director of Polfa. He stated that the stash found by the authorities “was a real ticking time bomb» because it was in a fully urban area and was built very rudimentarily.
Source: La República
Date: June 24
Headline: Warnings are of no use. By: Abelardo de la Espriella
I said it in time: the world is not in recession, but in depression. But warnings are absolutely useless if they are not accompanied by suggestions, recommendations, and plausible and effective initiatives. (…) Unemployment, business closures, the drastic reduction in the demand for goods and services, and the slowdown of key sectors (such as hydrocarbons) are becoming the fertilizer for populist and irresponsible speeches that put the free market and business freedom in our country at serious risk (…) 21st Century Socialism sold the idea that Venezuela's natural wealth, managed rigorously and without corruption, would be enough to reduce the gap between rich and poor through the implementation of ambitious - in my opinion, fanciful - programs fully subsidized by the State. When Chávez came to power, Venezuela extracted around 3.5 million barrels of oil per day. Today, production barely exceeds half a million. And it is not because the reserves have been exhausted, but because the economic model was so disastrous that it destroyed everything.
Source: La República
Date: June 24
Headline: Dollar decreases due to better economic data globally
On Tuesday, the dollar reached an average price of $3,705.96, which represented a drop of $27.31 against the Representative Market Rate (TRM), which stood at $3,733.27. (…) On the oil prices side, after a day that started with rising quotes, both WTI and Brent references closed lower. According to Reuters prices, the barrel of the former decreased by 0.88%, to US$40.37, while the latter fell by 1.04%, to US$42.63.
Source: La República
Date: June 24
Headline: Suspension of the Fiscal Rule. By: Nelson Vera
Last week, the Advisory Committee of the Fiscal Rule (RF) agreed to the government's request to invoke Article 11 of Law 1473/2011, suspending the application of the so-called RF gaps during 2020-2021. It is understandable to move away from the application of the Structural Deficit (DE) calculation in 2020, where gaps and the size of counter-cyclical spending were already significant, given spending pressures and the collapse in tax revenues. The suspension of the RF for 2021 seems somewhat premature: if we are talking about a fiscal convergence from deficits of 8% of GDP in 2020 to values close to 5% in 2021, I believe it was feasible to re-engage with gaps in that year (with greater degrees of freedom given both the product gap in 2021 and the oil collapse in 2020).
Source: Portafolio
Date: June 24
Headline: Responsible flexibility. By: Francisco Miranda Hamburguer
The decision to suspend the Fiscal Rule for this year and 2021 has sparked a valuable debate both about the suspension itself and its implications for public finances. Valuable because it brings to the table an aspect of the fight against the coronavirus pandemic that goes unnoticed by most citizens: where will all the extraordinary resources that the Government is currently allocating to combat the impacts of the disease come from, and how will society end up paying for them in the near future? (…) On the other hand, the reduction of economic activity to historic levels, as well as tax relief, translates into a decrease in state revenues and collections. Next year, there will also be a drop in income from oil.
Source: Vanguardia Liberal
Date: June 24
Headline: The economic collapse of the century. By: Andrés Espinosa Fenwarth
The plummet in oil prices and the rigors of mandatory labor and social isolation have resulted in the worst decline in economic activity in the country's history. The month of April 2020 will be remembered in history books as the period of greatest economic, business, and social destruction of all time. The Economic Tracking Indicator from Dane confirms this, given that it decreased by 13% in April 2020. This Indicator groups primary activities (agriculture and mining) and explains 13% of the economy; secondary occupations (manufacturing and construction) contribute 20% of the Gross Domestic Product; and tertiary activities (public services, commerce, transportation, storage, accommodation, food, communications, financial, real estate, scientific, technical, artistic professions and entertainment, as well as public administration, education, and health) represent the remaining 67% of the national economy.
Institutional
Source: sostenibilidad.semana.com
Date: June 23
Headline: Oil spill affects three towns in Caquetá
In the localities of Curillo, Solita, and Solano, a health emergency was declared to prevent the capture of water for their aqueducts. The oil company activated a contingency plan. It is believed that the contamination was caused by illegal crude extraction. A thick black foam is observed circulating on the waters of the Caquetá River. It is an oil stain that extends over a long stretch of the riverbed. (…) Mario Ángel Barón, the territorial director of Corpoamazonia, indicated that early Monday morning, the origin of the spill was known. According to the official, it occurred in a pipeline of the oil company Gran Tierra in the municipality of Puerto Guzmán. «The crude fell into a branch of the Mocoa River and then into the Caquetá River, so a contingency plan was immediately implemented by the oil company and Corpoamazonia,” assured the official.
Source: lafm.com.co
Date: June 23
Headline: Three municipalities in Caquetá are without water due to oil spill
The municipalities of Curillo, Solita, and Solano, in southern Caquetá, are without aqueduct service after images circulated on social media showing an oil stain that fell into the Caquetá River. In light of this situation, the territorial director of Corpoamazonia, Mario Ángel Barón, stated that the environmental emergency would have been generated by the drilling of an oil pipeline in the lower area of the neighboring department of Putumayo. “Early Monday morning, we learned about the origin of an oil spill in a pipeline at the exploration wells of the oil company Gran Tierra in Puerto Guzmán-Putumayo. This substance fell into a branch of the Mocoa River and then into the Caquetá River, so a contingency plan was immediately implemented by the oil company and Corpoamazonia,” assured the official.
Source: radionacional.co
Date: June 23
Headline: Rivers Mocoa and Caquetá contaminated by oil spill
Communities living in the Inspection of Puerto Limón reported the smell of oil as the Mocoa River rose due to heavy rains in the area. It was due to damage to the pipeline that crosses the river and carries gas and crude oil, which caused contamination to the waters of the Caquetá River. The contingency plan was immediately activated. (…) According to the statement, Gran Tierra was aware of the situation and activated its Emergency Response Plan and decided to immediately close its Moqueta facilities to prevent further leaks from the pipeline and deployed three environmental contingency teams to install containment barriers in Puerto Limón, El Jauno, and Puerto Guzmán. It also stated that «all local authorities and neighboring communities have been informed of what happened and an environmental report will be sent to the ANLA and Corpoamazonia.».
Colombian Association of Oil and Gas