Some positive production-related news emerged from the
Colombian extractive sector this week, as Ecopetrol announced
that it had set a new record for oil production from its Chichimene field. On
Tuesday, oil production from Chichimene averaged 86,389 barrels, helping it
become one of the largest and most productive oil fields in Colombia. According
to the article, the field was originally discovered by Chevron in 1969, and production
at Chichimene started in 1985, with an initial output of just 6,500 barrels per
day.
Separately, the National Colombian Mining Agency announced
that coal production in Colombia for January – September 2014 was up 12.1 percent
on the same period in 2013, to a total of 67.3 million tons. According to the
report, the Mining Agency did not offer an explanation for the increase, but
the report noted that the lower production totals in 2013 coincided with a
strike at the Cerrejón coal mine in northern Colombia.
In unrelated news, the Colombian peso hit
a three-year low against the dollar. While this is a welcome relief to Colombia’s
manufacturing and agricultural sectors, this development does nothing to help
the country’s reeling oil industry. Although the tremendous volatility of the
Colombian peso is a concern, the country’s inflation is still within the
government’s desired range of 2 to 4 percent.
No comments:
Post a Comment