Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Colombian oil production falls below 1 million BPD

After 9 straight months of hitting its oil production goal of 1 million barrels of oil per day, Colombian oil production in July fell by 6% to an average of just 945,000 bpd. Compared with the production average from the same month last year, oil production in July fell by just 2.67%.

Colombian Minister of Energy and Mines Tomás González blamed recent attacks by leftist guerrillas on Colombia’s oil infrastructure for the fall in production. Even Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos admitted a few days ago that it would be difficult for Colombia to keep hitting its oil production target.

Nonetheless, Minister González stressed that Colombia’s goal remains unchanged. He said in a press release that, “Colombia needs to maintain crude production at 1 million barrels. This is the only way to guarantee the resources that are needed to finance social projects that stimulate social development. Remember that reaching the monthly production goal of one million barrels means $1 billion for the national economy and social investment.”


In Colombian mining-related news, El Tiempo published several articles in recent days on the problem of illegal mining in Colombia. Investigators with the Peruvian Society for Environmental Law released a study contrasting the Colombian experience of illegal mining with that of its Amazonian neighbors, Ecuador, Peru, and Brazil. Whereas the rest of the countries export their gold primarily to the United States and Switzerland, Colombia gold exports go mainly to the Falkland Islands and Italy.

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