How can Colombia's oil companies recover?

­On Tuesday, Colombian daily El Tiempo wrote about the difficult times for Colombia’s oil companies. While oil prices staged a meager recovery to $66 per barrel, they’ve fallen once again below $50 dollars per barrel, and do not show any new signs of bouncing back. This is bad news for the share prices of Colombian oil companies like Ecopetrol, which has to combat both low oil prices and a diminished interest in oil stocks. Ecopetrol also suffers from dangerously low oil reserves and has shifted its strategic focus to incremental increases in production rather than searching for new large oil discoveries.

Portafolio wrote that new generators introduced to the Colombian market by General Electric will help lower operating and production costs for the Colombian oil sector. Felipe de Gamboa, Director of Business Development for GE in Colombia, explained that the Waukesha generator can lower costs by up to 35% for oil extraction companies by allowing them to replace diesel fuel with liquid petroleum gas (GLP). De Gamboa added that GLP generators are already very popular with oil companies around the world, but the company had to modify its generators so that they could work with Colombian GLP.

In mining-related news, the Colombian emerald mining industry continues to receive a significant amount of positive press, mostly surrounding the Gemfields investment in Colombia. Portafolio explained that Gemfields’ arrival, while somewhat insignificant in terms of dollar value, is important because Gemfields is just the second multinational to invest in the Colombian emerald industry. This shows that the industry is finally shedding its reputation for illegality and informality.