Pacific Rubiales is officially sold to Mexico's Alfa

Pacific Rubiales, the second-largest oil company in Colombia, officially accepted Mexico’s Alfa SAB de CV’s offer to buy the company for $6.4 billion, including debts of $4.7 billion. Alfa’s offer valued the company 35% above its closing price the day before the offer was announced and started driving up Pacific’s share price. Pacific Rubiales noted in a press release that its board unanimously approved the sale.

In other oil-related news, Colombian state-owned oil company Ecopetrol announced that it will increase its exploratory drilling in the country’s Meta department by 15% in 2015 in a bid to increase production in the country’s most oil-rich department. Ecopetrol’s operation in Meta aims to increase its average production from its 2014 figure of 227,000 bpd to 251,000 bpd.

Ecopetrol’s regional vice president emphasized that the company is paying special attention to lowering operational costs to make its drilling efforts more efficient, given the collapse in global oil prices shrank his budget from $2.5 billion in 2014 to just $1.6 billion in 2015. Nonetheless, the regional vice president however emphasized that Ecopetrol will not use “fracking” to extract more oil from its existing fields.

In mining-related news, a Colombian judge ordered the temporary suspension of 516 mining projects in the country because the mining companies did not consult with the local communities where their projects are located, as required by Colombian and international law. The judge specifically called out the National Mining Agency for hastily establishing strategic mining areas without first performing the necessary consultations. The advocacy work of a local social justice and environmental organization, Tierra Digna, directly led to the judge’s decision.