Some possible benefit to GTE?
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2015-01-1 ... -rout.html
Columbia
Re: Columbia
Crude Fall Prompts Proposals to Shield Colombian Drillers
By Andrew Willis - Jan 16, 2015
Colombia is preparing measures to help oil producers including Ecopetrol SA and Pacific Rubiales Energy Corp. (PRE) cope with the crash in global prices as the Andean nation looks to protect its biggest source of revenue.
Options include easing investment costs and reducing the amount of oil that goes to the government as a royalty, said Nicolas Mejia, vice president for promotion at Colombia’s hydrocarbons agency. Proposals put forward by several consultancies will be discussed at a Jan. 27 meeting with government ministers.
West Texas Intermediate, a U.S. benchmark oil price, fell 46 percent last year. Oil accounts for about half of Colombia’s exports and is a key revenue generator for the government. The nation’s oil production averaged 988,100 barrels a day in 2014, the first drop in output since 2005 amid community protests and pipeline attacks.
“Companies are calling for more favorable terms,” Mejia said in an interview Thursday in Bogota. “We need urgent and immediate measures to counteract the fall in oil prices.”
Other options are likely to include lowering a fee tied to the price of oil and a reduction in per-hectare charges, Mejia said. If approved, the measures would benefit producers including state-owned Ecopetrol as well as Pacific Rubiales and Canacol Energy Ltd.
Producers pay higher fees in Colombia when West Texas Intermediate tops $43 per barrel, according to the Agencia Nacional de Hidrocarburos. WTI is heading for its longest run of weekly declines since March 1986. Prices have collapsed as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries resisted calls to cut output amid a U.S. shale boom that has boosted global supplies.
Industry Consolidation
Colombia is keen to avoid fines for companies that fail to meet contractual obligations for exploration investment and sees consolidation in the industry before year-end, Mejia said.
To prevent production halts, the agency wants to cut the approval time for the exchange of oil blocks between companies from one year to a maximum of three months, Mejia said.
Wood Mackenzie Ltd., Arthur D Little and McKinsey & Co. are among the advisers being considered to produce a study on ways to help Colombia’s energy industry in the medium-to-long term.
As part of its longer-term strategy to boost the flagging sector, the hydrocarbons agency is promoting a legislative change that would give landholders a percentage of oil and gas produced. Similarly, any change to the amount of royalties producers pay to the government would have to be approved by Congress.
Under Colombian law, all minerals below the surface belong to the state and landowners only receive compensation from companies for disruptions caused by machinery.
“If communities and landowners feel like stakeholders it will greatly reduce the social problems across the regions,” Mejia said. “The blockades will disappear.”
By Andrew Willis - Jan 16, 2015
Colombia is preparing measures to help oil producers including Ecopetrol SA and Pacific Rubiales Energy Corp. (PRE) cope with the crash in global prices as the Andean nation looks to protect its biggest source of revenue.
Options include easing investment costs and reducing the amount of oil that goes to the government as a royalty, said Nicolas Mejia, vice president for promotion at Colombia’s hydrocarbons agency. Proposals put forward by several consultancies will be discussed at a Jan. 27 meeting with government ministers.
West Texas Intermediate, a U.S. benchmark oil price, fell 46 percent last year. Oil accounts for about half of Colombia’s exports and is a key revenue generator for the government. The nation’s oil production averaged 988,100 barrels a day in 2014, the first drop in output since 2005 amid community protests and pipeline attacks.
“Companies are calling for more favorable terms,” Mejia said in an interview Thursday in Bogota. “We need urgent and immediate measures to counteract the fall in oil prices.”
Other options are likely to include lowering a fee tied to the price of oil and a reduction in per-hectare charges, Mejia said. If approved, the measures would benefit producers including state-owned Ecopetrol as well as Pacific Rubiales and Canacol Energy Ltd.
Producers pay higher fees in Colombia when West Texas Intermediate tops $43 per barrel, according to the Agencia Nacional de Hidrocarburos. WTI is heading for its longest run of weekly declines since March 1986. Prices have collapsed as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries resisted calls to cut output amid a U.S. shale boom that has boosted global supplies.
Industry Consolidation
Colombia is keen to avoid fines for companies that fail to meet contractual obligations for exploration investment and sees consolidation in the industry before year-end, Mejia said.
To prevent production halts, the agency wants to cut the approval time for the exchange of oil blocks between companies from one year to a maximum of three months, Mejia said.
Wood Mackenzie Ltd., Arthur D Little and McKinsey & Co. are among the advisers being considered to produce a study on ways to help Colombia’s energy industry in the medium-to-long term.
As part of its longer-term strategy to boost the flagging sector, the hydrocarbons agency is promoting a legislative change that would give landholders a percentage of oil and gas produced. Similarly, any change to the amount of royalties producers pay to the government would have to be approved by Congress.
Under Colombian law, all minerals below the surface belong to the state and landowners only receive compensation from companies for disruptions caused by machinery.
“If communities and landowners feel like stakeholders it will greatly reduce the social problems across the regions,” Mejia said. “The blockades will disappear.”