ACP as a source of information
Source: eltiempo.com – National
Date: April 12
Headline: Business leaders call for unity to face the pandemic
Business leaders and unions in the country expressed their commitment to overcoming the emergency generated by the coronavirus pandemic and their support for the measures adopted by the National Government. In an open communication published in several newspapers in the country, business leaders thanked workers for their efforts to keep the productive apparatus running. (…) In one of the excerpts from the statement, business leaders thank workers and their families «for making it possible for the country not to stop, because their commitment and dedication allow all Colombians to have access to necessary services and products for survival.» (…) Unions and institutions: …ACP – Francisco José Lloreda.
Source: El País – Regional
Author: Francisco José Lloreda Mera
Date: April 12
Headline: The other war
The agreement that is about to be reached among the most important oil-producing countries to cut global production and help recover the price, which plummeted in mid-February and has been below 30 dollars a barrel on average for a month, is starting to be classified as historic, a price at which very few countries can live without affecting their sustainability and which would lead to the bankruptcy of the oil sector. (…) It worked for them. While Russia is doing well economically, its finances depend largely on oil, and the United States has begun to see its shale production affected. They understood that none of them - including the Saudis who also depend on oil - benefit from a price war. It’s so serious that it was Trump who called for sanity. As I write this column, they must have already been negotiating for three days among the producers. Replicated in:elpais.com.co (April 12).
Source: eldiariodelllano.com – Regional
Date: April 08
Headline: Frontera Energy delivers humanitarian aid package to Casanare
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 face 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 prevention kits, 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 attend to 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 in the department. Replicated in: casanarenoticias.com (April 08).
GREMIO
Source: Portafolio
Date: April 13
Headline: The virus in public finances. By: Mauricio Cabrera Galvis
Public finances have also been infected by Covid-19 and if a quick treatment is not applied, they will enter intensive care due to the conjunction of two causes that will increase the fiscal deficit: one, the necessary increase in public spending to avoid a paralysis of the productive apparatus and a social explosion, and two, the reduction of tax revenues that the economic recession will cause. (…) The collapse of oil prices worsens the situation. Last year Ecopetrol delivered to the Nation $20 trillion in taxes and dividends and another $5 trillion in royalties. With an average oil price of around US$30 per barrel, former minister Amylkar Acosta estimates that this contribution will decrease by about $12 trillion.
Source: Portafolio
Date: April 13
Headline: Oil and mining must not close, say investment banks
The health emergency that Colombia faces due to covid-19 is unprecedented. This pandemic that has triggered an economic crisis is directly and indirectly impacting all economic sectors, including the mining-energy sector, whose companies mostly cannot completely suspend their operations. (…) Likewise, Vesga reiterated that unlike what happened at that time, oil companies are currently better prepared as “we come from a price recovery after the crisis and companies learned to optimize their resources, and proof of this is Ecopetrol's results in the last two years.”.
Source: Portafolio
Date: April 13
Headline: Prevention at the Barranca refinery
Experts from the National Institute of Health, at the request of Ecopetrol, conducted a tour of the Barranca refinery in order to present a series of recommendations to strengthen the mitigation and containment measures of the virus in its facilities.
Source: BLU Radio
Date: April 13
Source: RCN Radio.
Date: April 13
Topics
Source: El Tiempo
Date: April 13
Headline: World Bank estimates that the country will fall to 2% and will recover by 3.4% in 2021
The World Bank, one of the giants of multilateral banking, in which many countries around the world have set their sights to obtain resources amid the crisis caused by covid-19 and low oil prices, released yesterday its new economic growth projections for the nations of Latin America and the Caribbean, and estimated that in the case of Colombia there will be a contraction (-2 %), followed by a recovery in 2021 of 3.4 percent. (…) In the report presented yesterday, the World Bank highlighted that Latin America and the Caribbean were already experiencing a slowdown, due to the social tensions that had been occurring in several countries for the past twelve months, which was compounded by the almost plummeting reduction of oil prices.
Source: El Tiempo
Date: April 13
Headline: Oil-producing countries agree on a ‘historic’ cut’
The OPEC+ oil alliance agreed yesterday to cut 9.7 million barrels per day (mbd) during the months of May and June; and if this is combined with the shutdown of taps from other major producers, the volume that could be withdrawn from the market could be around 20 mbd, 20 percent of global demand. (…) This Monday, in Asian markets, the impact of the agreement was already being felt: oil prices were rising by more than 3 percent. The West Texas Intermediate (WTI) barrel was trading up 3.4 percent at $23.55, while Brent crude rose 3.1 percent to $32.46 per barrel.
Source: El Espectador
Date: April 13
Headline: Tax reform on the horizon
Alberto Carrasquilla, Minister of Finance, states that this will be the worst year in the country's economic history: the Colombian economy will go from having a projected growth of 3.7 percent to one of -1.5 percent to -2 percent, the official projects. (…) How much can the Colombian economy be affected by the pandemic and the drop in oil prices? Immensely. This will be one of the worst years, if not the worst, in our economic history. Each day of forced confinement —the first essential step to manage this complex situation— costs Colombians more than 2 billion, according to an excellent recent study by Fedesarrollo. What can be more costly: the uncertainty from the pandemic or the drop in crude prices? There have always been drops in oil prices, although this is one of the most severe. The impact of this will be significant.
Source: El Espectador
Date: April 13
Headline: Colombian GDP will fall 2 percent in 2020
According to the agency, the pandemic adds to factors weakening the economy in Latin America, such as social tensions and the drop in oil prices. Colombia's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will fall 2 percent in 2020. That is one of the figures derived from the recent World Bank report titled «The Economy in Times of COVID-19.» The document indicates that «in the last 12 months, a series of upheavals impacted the economic growth of the region, starting with social tensions (the protests), the collapse in international oil prices, and now the COVID-19 crisis (coronavirus). As a result, growth is being affected.».
Source: La República
Date: April 13
Headline: Analysts believe the dollar will close the first half of the month below 4,000
Since last Wednesday and for this Monday, the Representative Market Rate (TRM) stands at 3,886.79, a level not seen for more than a month, when on March 12 the currency was at 3,835.15. (…) Meanwhile, the research manager at Global Securities, Raúl Moreno, reaffirmed this position and predicted that the Colombian peso could continue to recover during this week due to a strengthening in oil prices. “Greater recoveries can be observed in the coming months considering that the meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) was key and generated confidence in the market with a short-term appreciation of crude,” Moreno pointed out.
Source: La República
Date: April 13
Headline: Effect of the reduction in fracking
Toronto. The decrease in fracking activities is becoming one of the worst in history. According to analysts from Citigroup Inc. and Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co., it is likely that at least half of all fracking work will disappear from the map by the end of June.
Source: Portafolio
Date: April 13
Headline: IMF credit line could be useful for the post-coronavirus.
In recent days it was reported that on March 19, Juan José Echavarría, manager of the Bank of the Republic, and Alberto Carrasquilla, Minister of Finance, official representatives of Colombia to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), officially requested the renewal of the Flexible Credit Line (FCL) for nearly US$11 billion, which is valid until May of this year. (…) Although the FCL has been designed for cases where the balance of payments shows significant deterioration, Echeverry states: “What greater balance of payments crisis than the price of oil at US$20/30? (…) That is how (the FCL) should be used.”.
Institutional
Source: El Meridiano de Córdoba
Date: April 13
Headline: Hocol suspends exploration in Tolú.
Through a statement, the company Hocol reported that it has suspended work on the exploratory well Obiwan, block YDSN1 in Tolú. This is located in the area known as La Loma, near the village of Las Pitas. It seems that the decision was made following the discontent expressed by the residents of Tolú. (…) It stated that they have the authorization from the Ministry of Mines and Energy, which specifies that exploratory activity is exempt from mandatory preventive isolation. It also reported that on April 10, they met with Asocomunal and with 14 of the 16 communities in the area of influence, to reaffirm the rigorous application of all protocols and good practices for mitigating contagion against Covid-19, to continue with the development of the Obiwan project.
Source: Vanguardia Liberal
Date: April 12
Headline: Economy in jeopardy due to oil prices.
Due to the drop in oil prices in the last month, the income to the country from oil revenue and royalties will decrease. For the oil sector, 2020 was supposed to be a year of economic recovery. However, everything changed in recent months due to the drop in oil barrel prices, caused by the crisis resulting from the supply shock (price war) and COVID-19. (…) For 2021, Campetrol assures that income from oil revenue (dividends from Ecopetrol and income tax from E&P companies) and royalties will decrease. This creates a new challenge to leverage the economic fabric that has been severely affected, to finance a new budget aimed at addressing COVID-19 and to meet the obligations incurred by the nation. (…) BLOW TO THE NATIONAL BUDGET. According to figures from the Ministry of Mines and Energy, 51% of the national GDP is generated by the hydrocarbons sector. Similarly, 81% of the royalty budget comes from this sector.
Source: eluniversal.com.co
Date: April 12
Headline: Hocol S.A. suspended hydrocarbon exploration in Tolú.
Hocol S.A., a company dedicated to the exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbons, suspended its activities in the municipality of Tolú this Sunday, as there is supposedly an atmosphere of unease in the population, which, according to the firm, was caused by misinformation. According to the company, the decision was made considering the dynamics of the activities of the project being carried out at the Obiwan Well, without this meaning the cancellation of the project and its definitive withdrawal from the area. (…) Hocol S.A., through a statement, also expressed that it has the support of the Ministry of Mines and Energy, an authority that also observes the exploratory activity within the exceptions of mandatory preventive isolation.
Colombian Association of Oil and Gas