ACP as a source of information
Source: RCN Radio – National
Date: April 14
GREMIO
Source: El Tiempo
Date: April 15
Headline: Health crisis, opportunity for structural change?
It is too early to appreciate the extent of the pandemic damage in Colombia. But there are reasons to maintain hope. The Government, after delays in decisions and poor management of the crisis at the airports in Bogotá and other capitals that allowed the avoidable arrival of infected passengers, has been improving and taking significant steps in managing the emergency. (…) In the Loss Sheet corresponding to the accounts of the 2020 fiscal year, the situation is lamentable. Growth will be zero or negative. Oil revenue will fall and with it the deficit in the trade balance will deepen and there will be a decrease in royalties for the territories and in Ecopetrol's dividends.
Source: La República
Date: April 15
Headline: Ecopetrol donated more than $22.000 million
Ecopetrol announced a second investment package of $22.800 million to strengthen the health system's response. This is an amount that will help produce personal protective equipment for Bogotá, Barrancabermeja, and Cartagena. (…) «It is time to unite, to combine efforts to face this emergency as a team. We decisively support the Capital of the Republic, Barrancabermeja, Cartagena, and all of Colombia with these resources to strengthen their capacities and timely assist those affected by the pandemic. I am convinced that we will overcome this stage if each company, each institution, and each person contributes our best capabilities and memories, and strictly follows the guidelines for self-care and isolation,” said Felipe Bayón, president of Ecopetrol.
Source: La República
Date: April 15
Headline: Electulua and Gas Natural provide the highest dividends per share
Ecopetrol, Grupo Sura, and Bancolombia are the companies whose shareholder assemblies approved distributing the most profits in total. After holding their Shareholder Assemblies, several companies have already paid the dividends corresponding to last year's economic activity or will do so soon. Among the companies that are about to distribute their profits from 2019, Tuluá Electricity Company (Electulua), Gas Natural (Vanti), and Protección are the ones that will deliver the highest dividends per share. (…) On the side of the companies that allocated more resources to distribute in total among their shareholders are Ecopetrol, Grupo Sura, and Bancolombia.
Source: Portafolio
Date: April 15
Headline: Ecopetrol cedes ground in its international operation
Another area of work for Ecopetrol that is being affected by covid-19 and low barrel prices is its operations in international theaters. Thus, due to these two issues, the Colombian oil company has no choice but to cut nearly US$9.000 million from the budget it had initially allocated for its tasks in 2020 in the Gulf of Mexico, off the coasts of the U.S. and in Brazil. (…) However, the drop in barrel prices and covid-19 led to the slowdown of several YNC operations in the northern country, and one of the companies that had no choice but to drastically reduce fracking tasks was Oxy, Ecopetrol's partner in the work.
Source: La Opinión
Date: April 15
Headline: Uncertain economic future. By. Alfredo Yáñez
External factors are decisive in a country's economy and, most seriously, without the affected citizens realizing it. Kind readers: some expert brokers, thinking more about their income than about their client's capital, convince them to make investments in certain securities without considering external factors that can, with a decision more political than economic, ruin their client's savings. These people think that stocks behave like Scott's Emulsion of pure cod liver oil, which has remained on the pharmaceutical market unchanged for three generations. The most recent case has been the price drop suffered by Ecopetrol's stock due to the Russia-Saudi Arabia oil war and the decrease in purchases of this input by China.
Source: Vanguardia Liberal
Date: April 15
Headline: Strengthening hospital care network in the District
The strategy in hospital care will allow for 72 intensive care units at the Regional Hospital and 10 more ICUs at the La Magdalena clinic, for the exclusive care of diagnosed and suspected COVID-19 patients. New provisions were announced yesterday as part of the hospital care plan for Barrancabermeja, which seeks to contain the effects of the coronavirus at all costs by strengthening the IPS in the city. (…) “At the Regional Hospital, there are already 12 units, and the goal is to reach 72 ICUs. Ecopetrol will donate 10 mechanical ventilation units, and as part of the expansion plan for the District, we will also have an alternate plan at the La Magdalena Clinical Unit, where 10 additional units will be set up in tower C, exclusively for the care of COVID-19 patients.”.
Source: El Frente
Date: April 15
Headline: 2,979 people infected with coronavirus in the country In two months, 127 patients have died
With a figure of 46,780 infected by the global plague, quite small compared to the scale of the tragedy represented by the spread of the coronavirus in 197 countries around the world, the national government insists on maintaining mandatory isolation with the closure of the main economic activities of the country, which have represented substantial losses for the public and private sectors, estimated at sixty-five trillion pesos. The department of Santander has faced its greatest contagion problems at the Barrancabermeja Refinery, where a leader of the powerful oil union, who had contact with Italian engineers, became infected and died. In recent hours, four more people were infected among the staff of the Ecopetrol refinery, which forced a partial suspension of operations at the fracking plant, where the contagion originated.
Source: El Frente
Date: April 15
Headline: Strengthening hospital care plan
The District Mayor's Office of Barrancabermeja and the National Institute of Health led a strategy to strengthen hospital care for COVID-19 positive patients in the District, which complements the health expansion plan announced by Mayor Alfonso Eljach and Governor Mauricio Aguilar. Experts from the INS provided advice to representatives of local IPS such as Clínica San Nicolás, Clínica San José, Unidad Clínica La Magdalena, Clínica Reina Lucía, Hospital Regional del Magdalena Medio, Policlínica-Ecopetrol, Empresa Social del Estado Barrancabermeja, and the District Health Secretariat. (…) This work is part of the efforts that the district administration is undertaking with Ecopetrol, a company with which it has joined to form a single epidemiological front and thus be able to receive donations in equipment and supplies from this company.
Source: prensalibrecasanare.com
Date: April 15
Headline: Aid of another $22.800 million to expand and improve health care in Colombia announced Ecopetrol
The Ecopetrol Group announced a second investment package of $22.800 million aimed at strengthening the health system in Bogotá and, through partnerships with the business sector, producing personal protective equipment for several cities in Colombia, including the Capital of the Republic, Barrancabermeja, and Cartagena. (…) This second investment package adds to the one recently announced by the Ecopetrol Group for $26 billion to strengthen the health system in Magdalena Medio, Santander, Norte de Santander, Arauca, Casanare, Meta, Neiva, Putumayo, and the Caribbean, with an emphasis on Cartagena, Santa Marta, Coveñas, and La Guajira, as well as in other areas where the Company operates. For its part, the Gente Ecopetrol Foundation has accumulated $850 million in contributions for humanitarian aid to more than 4,600 families in 17 municipalities across the country, thanks to donations of a freely chosen amount or one day's salary from 2,019 contributors among Ecopetrol employees and retirees, its subsidiary Cenit, and volunteers.
Topics
Source: El Tiempo
Date: April 15
Headline: ‘It's not time to talk about a tax reform’: Efraín Cepeda
A whole package of proposals to the Government, which include lowering interest rates and a gradual return to full activity in the country, was made by a group of conservatives to President Iván Duque. Conservative senator and former president of Congress Efraín Cepeda explained some of those ideas to EL TIEMPO. (…) How strong do you think the economic impact of the coronavirus will be? I believe it will be in the country and worldwide. The country's predictions are already for a negative growth of around 2 percent. This will also depend on when we can overcome this pandemic. Hopefully a vaccine appears. Oil prices have also been affected by the Russian-Arab conflict, which seems to be on the path to resolution, which undoubtedly shows a small light at the end of the tunnel. These are issues we have to face. This is a solid economy that receives support from international organizations.
Source: La República
Date: April 15
Headline: So far in April, the dollar's exchange rate decreased $222 and reached $3.858
Since April 2, when the Representative Market Rate (TRM) was at $4.081,06, the dollar in Colombia has been showing daily slight reductions in its exchange rate and has already completed a drop of $222 up to today, as in the previous session the currency fell $12,07 and traded at an average of $3.858,24. (…) The loss in the strength of the dollar at the local level occurred despite the drop in oil prices below US$30, despite the OPEC production cut. According to the closing reported by Reuters, the WTI barrel fell 10,26% to US$20,11 and Brent decreased 6,74% to US$29,60.
Source: Portafolio
Date: April 15
Headline: Up to $50 billion, the country's margin to face the crisis
As the days of confinement in the country go by, more requests for aid are emerging from sectors of the economy that are totally or partially paralyzed due to the health situation, a situation in which the Government has been making efforts to respond in the best way. But, according to experts, greater spending will be required. (…) Before going into details, it is worth mentioning how the indicators of fiscal deficit and debt over GDP were, the targets that were set for those data this year - made prior to covid-19 and the impact of low oil prices - and how they would close 2020 after the new scenario.
Source: Portafolio
Date: April 15
Headline: Brent drops from US$30 per barrel
Although Saudi Arabia and Russia reached an agreement over the weekend to end the price war and withdraw nearly 10 million barrels per day from the market, practically 10% of international production, the price of Brent crude fell again yesterday, causing its quotation to be below USS30. Specifically, the June delivery barrel of Brent saw a drop of 6,74% yesterday, bringing its price to US$29,6 per unit. And the U.S. WTI crude performed worse, as its quotation in yesterday's session fell 30,26% to US$20,11.
Source: El Nuevo Siglo
Date: April 15
Headline: Oil falls: closed yesterday at US$20,11
The price of oil had a sharp drop yesterday in New York, in a market skeptical about the possibility that an agreement reached on Sunday between crude exporters to sustain prices would compensate for the drop in demand due to the coronavirus. The WTI barrel for June delivery lost 10,3% of its value, settling at US$20,11. Meanwhile, the North Sea Brent barrel for May delivery fell 7% to US$29,60. The market does not seem convinced of the effects of the agreement between OPEC and its main allies gathered in OPEC+, which eliminated 9.7 million barrels per day from the market in May and June, to then increase the volume until May 2022.
Source: El Colombiano
Date: April 15
Headline: All doors are being knocked on to seek solidarity
The widespread call is to help those who are most vulnerable in times of health emergency due to covid-19. It doesn't matter if it's a multinational, an educational institution, a union, or a local entity. The voices are focused on calling for solidarity and contributing something to benefit those who have been affected by the isolation measures to prevent the spread of the virus. (…) The gas transporter, which announced contributions of $2.000 million over the weekend for the strengthening of the health system in this department, is preparing a new humanitarian support package. This was confirmed by Julio Turizzo Villalba, the company's manager, who stated that the idea is to bring this new support to the communities in the gas pipeline's area of influence, located in Magdalena Medio, Nordeste, and Oriente antioqueños. “This will be a long-term issue, and that is why we will have a second package of donations,” he said in a dialogue with EL COLOMBIANO.
Institutional
Source: llanosietedias.com
Date: April 15
Headline: Royalties, oil sector, and public services
Many doubts have arisen regarding the billing of public services, oil production, with Meta being the main producer in the country, and about the use that is being given or will be given to royalty resources, in order to face the mandatory isolation situation to prevent the coronavirus in the best way. The situation in the department of Meta regarding the cost of public services has especially taken several voices of complaint and dissatisfaction regarding the increase in energy services, to which the Deputy Minister of Mines, Diego Mesa, assured that there was indeed an increase throughout the country, considering two aspects such as the cost of generation and consumption. (…) Additionally, the main topic discussed was what the Meta governor denounced a few days ago regarding the oil companies that proposed bringing personnel from other regions…
Colombian Association of Oil and Gas