Despite seemingly endless warnings of a crash from oil
industry observers, Colombian oil production has bucked
the odds and maintained
a daily average of more than 1 million barrels of oil. Oil production in
January actually increased by 2.7% over December 2014’s average
to 1,034,500 barrels per day. This is the fourth straight month that the
Colombian oil industry has hit the government’s goal of one million barrels per
day. Business journal Dinero’s report
noted that production totals almost certainly benefited from the fact that
there were no attacks against Colombia’s oil infrastructure in January.
In related news, Colombian finance minister Mauricio
Cardenas called
on Ecopetrol to power through the oil crisis and maintain a level of
investment in exploration sufficient to keep these production successes going.
In essence, he said that Ecopetrol needs to find a way to keep production at 1
million barrels today, regardless of the price of oil.
Simon Gaviria, head of the Colombian Planning Department, told
reporters that the country is looking into adjusting its royalties system to
give large oil companies an incentive to invest in increasing production at
existing oil fields. This proposal would allow for Colombian officials to
fatten up pre-existing oil production contracts to strengthen relations with oil
companies.
For months now, oil industry observers have been calling on
the Colombian government to do everything it can to keep oil companies happy,
lest they decide to take their investment dollars elsewhere amid the slump in
global oil prices. It appears that Colombian regulators have heard these pleas
and are starting to respond.
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