Colombia's oil interference (Bloomberg)23 Aug 2024 12:58
It seems like a good thing we are no longer involved:
Bloomberg' s Energy Daily today
"Investors in Colombia’s state oil company have watched warily for two years as President Gustavo Petro tried to squelch the nation’s fossil-fuel production. They have a fresh reason to worry.
Ecopetrol SA surprised the market last month by pulling out of a $3.6 billion deal to buy a stake in Texas shale-oil assets from Occidental Petroleum Corp. Ecopetrol Chief Executive Officer Ricardo Roa said the board scrapped the deal because it required too much debt.
There was another reason, though, according to Juan Carlos Echeverry, a former Ecopetrol CEO and ex-Colombian finance minister. He said on a radio program in Bogota that Petro, Colombia’s first leftist leader, personally killed the deal.
Occidental CEO Vicki Hollub wasn’t happy.
“We thought we were done,” Hollub said on a call with analysts. “But President Petro of Colombia didn’t approve of it. And he’s made it very clear to the world that he’s anti-oil and gas, anti-fracking, and anti-US.”
A Petro spokesman declined to confirm whether the president had intervened in the deal but said the administration has “always expressed our interest in moving forward hand in hand with Ecopetrol.” "