Ecopetrol's profits destroyed by falling oil prices

Earlier this week, Colombia state oil company Ecopetrol announced a 62.2% fall in its quarterly profits. Ecopetrol blamed the collapse in global oil prices and terrorist attacks against Colombia’s oil infrastructure for the depressed profit figures. Despite the falling profits, Ecopetrol’s combined oil and gas production actually rose a slight 1.1% over the previous year, to 761,000 bpd. The report noted that Ecopetrol is by far the largest oil producer in the Colombian oil sector, followed by the Canadian oil company Pacific Exploration and Production Corp.

In mining-related news, Al Jazeera America published an investigative piece where two journalists explained the story of how conflict gold, mined and produced by illegal armed groups in Colombia, finds its way to consumers in the United States. The article focuses on the Bajo Cauca region, an area that is rife with illegal armed groups that extort and profit from all aspects of the local economy.

The two journalists detail the story of Goldex, a large exporter of gold to the United States. However, this exported gold was a product of the Colombian conflict. Goldex also was accused of laundering hundreds of millions of dollars in dirty money for these same illegally armed groups. The authors note however that the Goldex trial does not signal the end of illegal gold mining in Colombia. The industry as a whole is rife with corruption, and is part of a broader criminality in the Colombian countryside.