News for today's 2018

Poor puppy

6:43 AM Tukiyooo 0

There we were trying to enjoy our breakfast in The Farm on Leeson Street while Bones stared in at us while he waited in the car.  Poor little fella'. BTW, the pancakes were "American Style".  They definitely were fatter and fluffier than Irish pancakes.  I wonder what is the difference.  Does bicarbonate of soda get added to the American pancake batter? <br/><br/><div class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjImMDT7X5a7KG8rSV0spFSbln-aWX6W7KXcOkC4tUz9N4cgXESLfH5j_CeUYCjd_tX9wRWRU3-VPwkHhtOLrBBizM-Q5ytb4egOrIJVn8vHEPlwKvIBBi8MhGWmyLw_jqfM77FuK-3-xlY/s640/blogger-image--1629960199.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjImMDT7X5a7KG8rSV0spFSbln-aWX6W7KXcOkC4tUz9N4cgXESLfH5j_CeUYCjd_tX9wRWRU3-VPwkHhtOLrBBizM-Q5ytb4egOrIJVn8vHEPlwKvIBBi8MhGWmyLw_jqfM77FuK-3-xlY/s640/blogger-image--1629960199.jpg" /></a></div> <br/><br/><div class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge1FdcmBLLr-W8Z63UWnZjT9xD053fwl3N4dqScYMqyEsR0qaCSJbCRjUXZs9KxLKyCH4p-ZqNfpoHZU-wTs8dBUgNFg-F6ttwtHjWofmlMroTamgY4afN6-Qm41vb8hSxrp7aj9UMQEtV/s640/blogger-image--2132779199.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge1FdcmBLLr-W8Z63UWnZjT9xD053fwl3N4dqScYMqyEsR0qaCSJbCRjUXZs9KxLKyCH4p-ZqNfpoHZU-wTs8dBUgNFg-F6ttwtHjWofmlMroTamgY4afN6-Qm41vb8hSxrp7aj9UMQEtV/s640/blogger-image--2132779199.jpg" /></a></div> <br/><br/><div class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCxf2t-yP5Y1FzKUBQN5vyEPdMh1L21W9vpmWw0fT-Ia4DI5QF-9E71z6gWAUdMtiQH29nWMDN5GRTqJqv-mb4MrVZQbCRwotKUc_u-teLCGtwTfSiiCK2IRJkZEGb5Atu46_wtbLnJjGD/s640/blogger-image-1613212734.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCxf2t-yP5Y1FzKUBQN5vyEPdMh1L21W9vpmWw0fT-Ia4DI5QF-9E71z6gWAUdMtiQH29nWMDN5GRTqJqv-mb4MrVZQbCRwotKUc_u-teLCGtwTfSiiCK2IRJkZEGb5Atu46_wtbLnJjGD/s640/blogger-image-1613212734.jpg" /></a></div> <br/><br/><div class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivIGaNiB4IWUX5GRKY3BmweCPs18DFjD_4Kwn11OA-s6HSCelwSU9KQx0_KymhtpBMF9LBZNEiWCcE7wfByNnBaljcWPRursZAd5B8ffv3uXOSuNse95QxiAgQFefddduTNssdIzGNbW_O/s640/blogger-image-2073373612.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivIGaNiB4IWUX5GRKY3BmweCPs18DFjD_4Kwn11OA-s6HSCelwSU9KQx0_KymhtpBMF9LBZNEiWCcE7wfByNnBaljcWPRursZAd5B8ffv3uXOSuNse95QxiAgQFefddduTNssdIzGNbW_O/s640/blogger-image-2073373612.jpg" /></a></div> <br/><br/><div class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7bDIzJhwglCNBNh0vlMhnt2pSs2kdKsUA1XF2-FQ4WOu0sb4dDC6rLaTFJNz5UEl_87eRhBtX3Wrw51dBHIKlWer3aq_ADyNbWaetgwBP1GaeTgm9xfittWnCp7y77m6gcdzwfuhKsQ_e/s640/blogger-image-2074138570.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7bDIzJhwglCNBNh0vlMhnt2pSs2kdKsUA1XF2-FQ4WOu0sb4dDC6rLaTFJNz5UEl_87eRhBtX3Wrw51dBHIKlWer3aq_ADyNbWaetgwBP1GaeTgm9xfittWnCp7y77m6gcdzwfuhKsQ_e/s640/blogger-image-2074138570.jpg" /></a></div>

Poor puppy

There we were trying to enjoy our breakfast in The Farm on Leeson Street while Bones stared in at us while he waited in the car. Poor littl...

PERU AND COLOMBIA:

6:43 AM Tukiyooo 0

<br /> <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk4ckMlsrodcEtUmowqxKV1c5XxAaZe-Nbsvh0NGnQ76RK5yUl9RL_-E1X60E1YH5JWo0rljlyl6viCc3z4uFzqLc0X8cBTCtHNHfSZOdkCuJKlxI_dD5KkH5grtINkfRNDSqhyphenhyphen1ES8XrR/s1600/peruimages.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="316" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk4ckMlsrodcEtUmowqxKV1c5XxAaZe-Nbsvh0NGnQ76RK5yUl9RL_-E1X60E1YH5JWo0rljlyl6viCc3z4uFzqLc0X8cBTCtHNHfSZOdkCuJKlxI_dD5KkH5grtINkfRNDSqhyphenhyphen1ES8XrR/s320/peruimages.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 1;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">TWO OPPORTUNITIES DEVOID OF RESOURCE NATIONALISM</span></b></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">While resource nationalism initiatives have scared away investors in ARGENTINA, BOLIVIA, ECUADOR and VENEZUELA, PERU and COLOMBIA are two LATIN AMERICA venues that offer relatively hassle-free investment and have plenty of new acreage openings. In PERU, we think LNG is the hot track to follow, while in COLOMBIA, it’s all about shale oil—if you can stomach the improving but lingering security threat. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">PERU: ALL ABOUT LNG</span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Against the backdrop of increasing resource nationalism in LATIN AMERICA, PERU stands out because of its untapped natural gas reserves, a new LNG plant, new investor-friendly policies and an independent licensing regime.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">While PERU is a net importer of oil, it is a net exporter of natural gas and also home to SOUTH AMERICA’S first liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXBx6jMgnnSrg1xsEN7LQkLjX2OarX5BicNXzj5AfIPBknuHYi3-JTEVKa8MLRfPoWbGg0DGwnEKjYkYarfcpgCARcp1t-jJrcqHEZy8Kdk8vm4b55uko3wEg86xOYhylY035ijBXnfIEm/s1600/AE1671.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXBx6jMgnnSrg1xsEN7LQkLjX2OarX5BicNXzj5AfIPBknuHYi3-JTEVKa8MLRfPoWbGg0DGwnEKjYkYarfcpgCARcp1t-jJrcqHEZy8Kdk8vm4b55uko3wEg86xOYhylY035ijBXnfIEm/s320/AE1671.png" width="292" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In a nutshell, PERU has 18 sedimentary basins with high hydrocarbons potential, but only six are undergoing any significant exploration activity and only three are currently producing. Geologically, the potential is vast: Nine of the 18 basins are located in the PERUVIAN coastal regions and the continental shelf; those basins in the central and southern continental shelf are particularly underexplored. In 2011, 18 exploratory wells were spudded, with another 25 drilled by the end of 2012 and more than 30 hoped for by the end of 2014.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">As of early last year, PERU had around 582 million barrels of proven oil reserves, adding about 50 million barrels to its reserves annually for the past two years. The onshore reserves are largely in the Amazon, while offshore reserves have been discovered most notably in the Talara basin (1.4 billion barrels of recoverable oil). Onshore, the most recent big discovery was in the Maranon Basin (970 million barrels of recoverable oil).</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">As of 2012, foreign oil companies had managed to get a hold of 41% of the exploration license area in the Amazon, but the country’s attempt to lure in more investors could see this nearly double in the coming 2-3 years. (Right now there are more than 50 foreign oil companies engaged in oil and gas exploration and drilling in PERU). Bidding rounds in late 2011 saw 11 new exploration licenses and production contracts awarded. In late 2012, another 22 exploration blocks were up for auction in the Amazon region.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">PERU IS INTENDING TO CREATE A GAS CONCESSION BORDERING OR EVEN INCLUDING PARTS OF THE MANU NATIONAL PARK IN THE AMAZON TO EXTEND EXPLORATION ACTIVITIES THERE!</span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDjLBaqBdHNUGf5EnEz3MKks_T76tl00E56aoaeixnnH1ScpL2KXUC1dhONGvm_jm51vr46o7RYsNCVppOmzEGZBn29uvmQ9ZVcBl0tht131J72u6bHo5q_RXGNMXc4ThvVtXiCC65iDpg/s1600/AE1672.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDjLBaqBdHNUGf5EnEz3MKks_T76tl00E56aoaeixnnH1ScpL2KXUC1dhONGvm_jm51vr46o7RYsNCVppOmzEGZBn29uvmQ9ZVcBl0tht131J72u6bHo5q_RXGNMXc4ThvVtXiCC65iDpg/s400/AE1672.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Many of PERU’S oilfields are already reaching declining output, and while new exploration may boost reserves, we’d rather talk about the potential of natural gas liquids. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Almost all of PERU’S natural gas liquids production is from onshore fields. Right now, PERU has about 12.5 trillion cubic feet of proven natural gas reserves, with its largest field in Camisea, in the southeast. Production here began in 2004 and has grown by nearly 40% year-on-year. However, the rate of natural gas production began exceeding domestic consumption in 2010. By December 2010, PERU'S natural gas production was in excess of 1 Bcf per day, mostly from the Camisea reserve. <a href="http://www.bnamericas.com/company-profile/en/Peru_LNG_S,R,L,-Peru_LNG"><span style="color: blue;">PERÚ LNG's</span></a> revenue last year reached $1.33bn, up 3.94% from 2011. But it’s still not fully explored, and we could see another 318 billion cubic feet discovered as this progresses. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But there are other, newer fields that hold great potential for exploration. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">•    Madre de Dios (onshore): Lot 76 of Madre de Dios, in southern PERU, is currently being explored by Hunt Oil, which believes the reserves could rival those of Camisea</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />•    Ucayali Basin (onshore): This field, in central PERU, was discovered by Petrobras in 2010 and is said to contain around 1.7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />•    Devonian Shale: In 2009, Maple Energy discovered unconventional gas in this shale </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">(There is also a <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/feb/11/gas-company-manu-park-amazon"><span style="color: blue;">leaked document</span></a> that shows that the government of PERU is intending to create a gas concession bordering or even including parts of the Manu national park in the Amazon to extend exploration activities there. This one will get tricky, though, as it is home to indigenous peoples and is a unique area of biodiversity that UNESCO is keen to protect.) </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">NATURAL GAS INFRASTRUCTURE</span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></b></span><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></b>This is why we like the natural gas potential of PERU—aside from the exploration potential: pipelines and SOUTH AMERICA’S first LNG plant. Right now, there are two pipelines carrying natural gas from the Camisea fields: 1) the 336-mile, 450-million-cubic-feet/day capacity Camisea pipeline, which ends at the Pisco port terminal which handles exports; 2) a 444-mile pipeline that runs from Malvinas along the coast to Lima and Callao for residential and industrial distribution. A third pipeline, the 620-mile Southern Andean, is being built from Camisea. </div><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In 2010, PERU began exporting LNG from its Melchorita plant, and by early 2012 exports had reach 15 billion cubic feet, with the bulk of exports going to SPAIN, the US, MEXICO, CHINA and SOUTH KOREA. This LNG plant is owned by the PeruLNG consortium: Hunt Oil (50%), SK Energy (20%), Repsol (20%) and Marubeni (10%). The plant has a yearly capacity of 215 billion cubic feet and expansion plans are also under way for two or three more LNG trains within the next 4-5 years.  </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Construction also began just over two years ago on a new liquefied petroleum gases (LPG) plant in the Cuzco area in the southeast for meeting local demand.  </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A note on governance is also appropriate here: While the state body of Perupetro manages and oversees the licensing process as well as exploration and exploitation, it does not participate as a partner or shareholder with private companies. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">COLOMBIA: SHALE OIL EXPLORATION GAINS MOMENTUM</span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqiKCJ9AIGHgG7Tpz_CCz9HypmWQb_n2dDX4QufP5UQN8DKfSk1Ij0k3pKmgN0PeJKgejHGgFd-ZYbmyqfh4ZBwt-didjAATepEtrcLBmDPoj0qHF2vl9tFFYi-iPZNA6Gk8Hheg7bHEAx/s1600/AE1673.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqiKCJ9AIGHgG7Tpz_CCz9HypmWQb_n2dDX4QufP5UQN8DKfSk1Ij0k3pKmgN0PeJKgejHGgFd-ZYbmyqfh4ZBwt-didjAATepEtrcLBmDPoj0qHF2vl9tFFYi-iPZNA6Gk8Hheg7bHEAx/s400/AE1673.png" width="298" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Colombia’s oil production has risen by about 40% from 2009 to 2011—making it the fastest-growing oil producer in LATIN AMERICA. Right now, the focus is on expanding unconventional exploration, but this means treading on territory that until very recently was dominated by rebel groups. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Is it too early? Perhaps. The government is still in talks with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The security situation remains extremely complex, and will continue to dominate the potential investment climate. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The first auctions of shale acreage in COLOMBIA were held late last year, with ExxonMobil Corp. and COLOMBIA’S state-owned Ecopetrol SA making the highest bids for three onshore blocks—two of which are believed to contain shale oil. There really wasn’t enough data on these blocks in time for the auction: only five bids were placed for 49 blocks up for grabs. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In late February, CANADIAN company Canacol Energy Ltd (CAAEF) and ConocoPhillips joined forces to explore for shale oil in COLOMBIA’S Middle Magdalena Basin. ConocoPhillips will pay $13.5 million in cash and be responsible for the cost of drilling, completing and testing some 13 wells. ConocoPhillips will get 70% of shale oil discovered in the deeper areas of the play, while Canacol will retain 30% in the deeper areas but 100% in the shallower reservoirs. This is for Canacol’s Santa Isabel contract (334,000 acres), which is only one of five contracts it has in COLOMBIA. For other contracts, Canacol has agreements with ExxonMobil Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell PLC. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">We like Canacol in COLOMBIA because we believe it is the best positioned to take advantage of the country’s unconventional shale oil play.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Right now, this is really a play for the juniors—small and medium-sized businesses. Discoveries haven’t been on a massive scale, but we like the trend that has emerged with Canacol—junior exploration lures in the majors. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><br /></div><span style="color: #cc0000;"> </span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">THE KEY BASINS:</span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The Middle Magdalena Basin:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> This is where the big attention is now. This basin is located in the <a href="http://www.searchanddiscovery.com/documents/2011/10296prince/"><span style="color: blue;">Eastern Cordilleras of the Colombian Andes</span></a> and exploration to date has led to discoveries of some 1.9 billion barrels of oil and 2.5 trillion cubic feet of gas. Explorers are already calling this the next Eagle Ford, and comparing it also to western ARGENTINA’S Vaca Muerta shale. Some have put recoverable shale gas reserve estimates at 31.7 trillion cubic feet. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The Llanos Basin:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> This east-central COLOMBIA is one of the most prospective areas for E&P, with more than 1.5 billion barrels of recoverable oil recorded so far. Around 70% of current production comes from this basin. This is the sight of a heavy oil belt (particularly in the Rubiales Field—4.38 billion barrels of oil in place).  </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Caguan-Putumayo Basin:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> This basin is in the country’s southwest, bordering ECUADOR and PERU and covering around 104,000 square kilometers. So far, more than 365 million barrels have been discovered in 19 different fields. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Catatumbo Basin: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A southwest extension of the Maracaibo Basin in VENEZUELA, the Catatumbo basin accounts for about 2% of the world’s hydrocarbon reserves. It is one of the most prolific basins, but only moderately explored.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Via Oilprice</span></div>

PERU AND COLOMBIA:

TWO OPPORTUNITIES DEVOID OF RESOURCE NATIONALISM While resource nationalism initiatives have scared away investors in ARGENTINA, BOLIVIA, E...

LATIN AMERICA AND EUROPE:

6:22 AM Tukiyooo 0

<br /> <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgspb1puOJ6DzEhV1vTqpAF2paCRPUHEBVOnbg_EJhiFX0wGeP8wH9RL6vfoqtH6SudL0CN9bMweI07-DUBcjoUkAPNvOlzspFTO0YIlbksKCOXUjbJ8ttufRFqHf042ZbQgFmZ8vGhM5HD/s1600/logo-eurolat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="277" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgspb1puOJ6DzEhV1vTqpAF2paCRPUHEBVOnbg_EJhiFX0wGeP8wH9RL6vfoqtH6SudL0CN9bMweI07-DUBcjoUkAPNvOlzspFTO0YIlbksKCOXUjbJ8ttufRFqHf042ZbQgFmZ8vGhM5HD/s320/logo-eurolat.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES FOR GREATER INTER-REGIONALISM</span></b></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">For two decades, EUROPEAN governments largely ignored LATIN AMERICA. Disinterest for the region grew in the 1990s when attention became focused on rebuilding and integrating EASTERN EUROPE. General disregard continued at the turn of the century, despite LATIN AMERICA’S booming economic growth.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">However, since the beginning of 2013, things appear to be changing in the international arena. At the end of January, the First EUROPEAN UNION – LATIN AMERICAN and CARIBBEAN (EU – CELAC) Summit took place in CHILE. It gathered the EU’s 27 and LATIN AMERICA’S 33 countries with the objective of creating a “strategic alliance for sustainable development”.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Important political figures were present during the meeting, including José Manuel Barroso, President of the EUROPEAN COMMISSION, Hermann Van Rompuy, President of the EUROPEAN COUNCIL and GERMAN Chancellor, Angela Merkel. The quality of the attendants alone seems to highlight the importance the region is taking for EUROPE. In addition, Merkel herself stated that LATIN AMERICA had the potential to help redress EUROPEAN countries in distress, in particular SPAIN and PORTUGAL.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Later, in mid-February, the LATIN AMERICAN Development Bank (CAF) and the prestigious school of government in Paris, Sciences Po, organized a Conference on EU-LATIN AMERICAN inter-regional relations. Renowned political, economic and academic figures from both regions were present to discuss the opportunities and challenges of greater interdependence. These offered important insights on the issues at stake and the viability of a strategic alliance.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">INTER-REGIONAL COOPERATION IS HIGHLY DESIRABLE </span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">First, all participants agreed that EUROPE and LATIN AMERICA’S common history, culture and values were a strong basis on which to develop positive inter-regional relations.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Second, according to Enrique Iglesias, IBERO-AMERICAN Secretary General (SEGIB), EUROPE’S past role as a socio-political, economic and integration model also facilitated collaboration between the two regions.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Admittedly, this model has proven to be ridden with imperfections as a result of the crisis affecting the EUROZONE and put the EU’s prime position in doubt.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">However, according to Enrique Garcia, CAF Executive President, the current situation in EUROPE provides the opportunity to diversify LATIN AMERICA’S economic relations.  If EUROPEAN countries and the EU reach out to foreign markets to stimulate growth, LATIN AMERICAN countries should see this as an incentive to increase bilateral and inter-regional relations.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">CONSIDERABLE NEED FOR INVESTMENT IN INFRASTRUCTURE, HUMAN CAPITAL AND TECHNOLOGY</span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In fact, while the LATIN AMERICAN region as a whole has experienced an average 4% to 5% growth since 2007, for Iglesias, governments should be cautious about “Latinoptimism”. Macroeconomic fundamentals and debt have been controlled, poverty has been reduced, but considerable challenges remain.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Most countries still have a considerable need for investment in infrastructure, human capital and technology. With an economy three times the size of LATIN AMERICA and an advanced degree of development, EUROPE’S funds and skills remain highly attractive. EUROPEAN and LATIN AMERICAN development funds, government representatives and businessmen all agreed on this.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsGSGo5m0KrSPkNf_WmED1OKszHQcGFGgu9vgfa-Uy7f2Q3T4deLYLVcqFt_seO-7rcqGLKJGxP-Yz4bKMQbEA7VPgYpJPmXeB1K43DIdWG97j3mQFfHNhnbBEQSWQXvg_pk5-QILHRXFi/s1600/images.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsGSGo5m0KrSPkNf_WmED1OKszHQcGFGgu9vgfa-Uy7f2Q3T4deLYLVcqFt_seO-7rcqGLKJGxP-Yz4bKMQbEA7VPgYpJPmXeB1K43DIdWG97j3mQFfHNhnbBEQSWQXvg_pk5-QILHRXFi/s1600/images.jpg" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">As Juan Carlos Echeverry, former Minister for the Economy of COLOMBIA put it, LATIN AMERICA also suffers from political tensions, but these can be tamed by continued growth. While countries such as BRAZIL have done an impressive job expanding the domestic market to absorb the shock of the US and EU crises, external markets will have to be reinvigorated to sustain and strengthen these rates of growth.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Hence, during the conference, many stressed that private sector initiative is crucial to foster business agreements and associations in the two regions. For Donato di Santo, an ITALIAN diplomat, in the past two years, small and medium ITALIAN enterprises in BRAZIL have increased from 200 to 800, benefitting parties on both sides of the Atlantic. However, for Iglesias and Di Santo, government intervention and political decisions to bolster inter-regional cooperation is also urgently needed.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">INTRA- AND INTER-REGIONAL TENSIONS HINDER SUSTAINABLE COOPERATION</span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">However, interregional cooperation suffers from a certain number of tensions. For Yves Saint –Geours, former FRENCH Ambassador to BRAZIL, Juan Gabriel Valdés, former Minister of Foreign Relations in CHILE and Ernesto Talvi, academic director of the Center for the Study of Economic and Social Affairs (CERES) in URUGUAY, inter-regionalism is difficult because there is not a united region for the EU to negotiate with.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Not surprising when we see the myriads of regional organizations in the AMERICAS. Since the 1990s, there have been the NAFTA, MERCOSUR, CAN and SICA, to name just a few. In recent years, we’ve seen the emergence of ALBA, UNASUR and most recently, the Pacific Alliance.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">These have effectively resulted in fragmenting rather than deepening regional integration. Differences in countries’ visions about regional integration and international relations, as well as competition between these visions have proved to be a further obstacle in creating a coherent regional stance for effective inter-regional cooperation.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Linked to this phenomenon, for Mario Pezzini, Director of the OECD Development Centre, differences in needs and demands on either side of the Atlantic limit greater inter-regionalism.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">BRAZIL AND ARGENTINA HAVE INCREASED PROTECTIONIST MEASURES, WHICH GO AGAINST THE EU’S POLICY GOALS</span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">For instance, the EU is seeking to stimulate global demand and re-establish confidence in the Eurozone. Hence, it is aiming to increase access to secure and profitable external markets through free trade agreements, while maintaining EU agricultural subsidies.  However, LATIN AMERICAN countries want to stimulate the domestic demand and achieve sustainable growth. To do so, countries such as BRAZIL and ARGENTINA have increased protectionist measures, which go against the EU’s policy goals.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Moreover, there is the fear that EUROPEAN interests will continue to be driven by energy needs. Consequently, the exploitation of natural resources risks deepening the primarization of the LATIN AMERICAN economy, leading to growth, but not development.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">To conclude, the beginning of 2013 has been subject to a number of important moves aimed at extending and deepening EURO-LATIN AMERICAN relations. As former AUSTRIAN Foreign Minister and European Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner put it, the EU-ECLAC was a “very, very important summit”, which marked the change towards a more equal and symmetrical relationship between the two regions. The Second Sciences Po-CAF conference equally marked the growing importance given to EU-ECLAC relations.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Notwithstanding the advantages that could be reaped on both sides from greater inter-regionalism, a number of important hurdles need to be overcome. Achieving greater intra-regional cohesion and inter-regional cooperation are some of them and clearly not the easiest ones. It seems that beyond political will, effective negotiations to reach common, viable and sustainable policies will be needed in the next few months. It is highly doubtful that we will see integral and effective inter-regionalism any time soon, but hopefully, concrete measures in that direction will be put into action.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">By Charlotte Serres</span></div>

LATIN AMERICA AND EUROPE:

OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES FOR GREATER INTER-REGIONALISM For two decades, EUROPEAN governments largely ignored LATIN AMERICA. Disinterest...

A Plan To Fix Cancer Care - NYTimes.com

5:28 AM Tukiyooo 0

<div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: -webkit-left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">This year, more than 1.6 million Americans — 0.5 percent of the population — will receive a diagnosis of cancer. Their treatment will consume at least 5 percent of the country's health care spending, at a cost that is growing faster than all other areas of medicine. Doctors and patients recognize that this is unsustainable and that we need to change the way we deliver care.</font></div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: -webkit-left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">But we need help, and that is why more than 20 prominent members of the oncology community contributed to the drafting of this essay (their names appear below).</font></div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: -webkit-left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">Many cancer patients, after getting a diagnosis of a terrifying disease, pursue any potentially promising therapy, regardless of the price. But the main cost driver is the fee-for-service payment system. The more doctors do for patients, the more reimbursement they receive. Surgeons earn more for every procedure. Oncologists typically make more money if they use newly approved drugs and the latest radiation treatments than if they use cheaper, older alternatives that work just as well. (This is because they get paid back the cost of the drug, in addition to an extra 6 percent of that cost — the more expensive the drug, the higher the compensation.)</font></div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: -webkit-left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">Some of these new therapies are rightly heralded as substantial advances, but others provide only marginal benefit. Of the 13 anticancer drugs the Food and Drug Administration approved in 2012, only one may extend life by more than a median of six months. Two extended life for only four to six weeks. All cost more than $5,900 per month of treatment.</font></div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: -webkit-left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">Significant costs also come from hospitalizations and emergency room visits that could be prevented with better management of common symptoms. Unfortunately, doctors earn more treating patients for serious problems in the hospital than they do preventing those problems from occurring in the first place.</font></div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: -webkit-left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">Five major changes need to occur:</font></div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: -webkit-left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">First, over the next few years, the payment system needs to move away from fee-for-service toward a system of bundled payments, in which doctors are paid one fee for all the treatments involved in caring for a cancer patient. This would remove the incentive to prescribe more expensive drugs when older generics are equally effective.</font></div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: -webkit-left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">Second, insurers have to give physicians information about where they are spending money. As crazy as it sounds, most physicians have little ability to track the care they deliver, or how they compare with other physicians who care for similar patients. Costs vary wildly for patients with identical cancers. One study of patients with cancers that had spread throughout their bodies showed that the costs of four months of scans varied from $1,800 to $6,400 per patient. Doctors don't have a clear sense of whether the money is going to chemotherapy, hospitalizations or follow-up M.R.I. scans. Armed with better data, physicians can learn how to improve care at lower cost.</font></div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: -webkit-left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">Third, any change in payment methods must be accompanied by rigorous quality monitoring to ensure that there is neither under- nor over-utilization of care.</font></div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: -webkit-left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">Fourth, we need more "high touch" oncology practices. In these practices, nurses manage common symptoms before they escalate to the point that they require visits to the emergency room, and doctors talk with patients about palliative-care services and end-of-life preferences early on — not in the weeks before death. These services are frequently not paid for by insurers but can improve the quality of care and save significant money by averting repeated tests, hospitalizations and futile, toxic chemotherapy. Insurers need to share the resulting savings, enabling physicians to invest in providing these services.</font></div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: -webkit-left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">Fifth, we need better incentives for research. Many expensive tests and treatments are introduced without evidence that they improve survival or reduce side effects, and with poor information about which patients should receive them. For instance, while more than 800,000 robotic surgeries, mostly for cancer, have been performed in the last two years, there is no reliable evidence that the robots either improve survival or reduce side effects — despite the fact that they cost more than traditional surgery. Once interventions are paid for, the incentive for research disappears.</font></div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: -webkit-left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">The oncology community cannot make these changes alone. The government is deeply involved and has to help. Today, 60 percent of cancer diagnoses are made in patients who are eligible for medicare. By 2030, that number will rise to over 70 percent. Medicare and the other payers need to work with oncologists. The secretary of health and human services should organize a working group representing Medicare, private insurers, oncologists, quality experts and patients to figure out how to develop these proposals — with no increase in costs — and start implementing them by the end of 2015. Everyone engaged in cancer care needs to help improve it.</font></div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: -webkit-left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; z-index: auto; "><em><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">Written with:<br><a href="http://medicine.duke.edu/faculty/details/0050834" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102); text-decoration: none;">Amy P. Abernethy, M.D., Duke University</a>; <a href="http://www.med.upenn.edu/apps/faculty/index.php/g275/p8199210" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102); text-decoration: none;">Justin E. Bekelman, M.D., University of Pennsylvania</a>; <a href="http://pressroom.cancer.org/OtisBrawley" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102); text-decoration: none;">Otis W. Brawley, M.D., American Cancer Society</a>; <a href="http://www.canceractionnow.org/about/martinelson.php" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102); text-decoration: none;">Robert L. Erwin, Marti Nelson Cancer Foundation</a>; <a href="http://www.ph.ucla.edu/hs/bio_ganz.asp" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102); text-decoration: none;">Patricia Ganz, M.D., U.C.L.A.</a>; <a href="http://www.utmb.edu/internalmedicine/divisions/geriatrics/faculty/goodwin.asp" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102); text-decoration: none;">James S. Goodwin, M.D., University of Texas Medical Branch</a>; <a href="http://www.palmbeachcancerfoundation.org/board.php#green" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102); text-decoration: none;">Robert J. Green, M.D., Palm Beach Cancer Institute</a>; <a href="http://www.cfah.org/jessie-gruman/jessie-gruman-biography" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102); text-decoration: none;">Jesse Gruman, President, Center for Advancing Health</a>; <a href="http://www.texasoncology.com/doctors/Russell_Hoverman/" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102); text-decoration: none;">J. Russell Hoverman, M.D., Ph.D., Texas Oncology, United States Oncology</a>; <a href="http://faculty.mdanderson.org/John_Mendelsohn/Default.asp?SNID=352973192" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102); text-decoration: none;">John Mendelsohn, M.D., MD Anderson Cancer Center</a>; <a href="http://www.unitedhealthgroup.com/Newsroom/Profile/LeeNewcomer.aspx" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102); text-decoration: none;">Lee N. Newcomer, M.D., UnitedHealth Group</a>; <a href="http://medicine.duke.edu/faculty/details/0470093" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102); text-decoration: none;">Jeffrey M. Peppercorn, M.D., M.P.H., Duke University</a>; <a href="http://www.fhcrc.org/en/labs/profiles/ramsey-scott.html" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102); text-decoration: none;">Scott D. Ramsey, M.D., Ph.D., Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center</a>; <a href="http://services.bidmc.org/Find_a_doc/doc_detail.asp?sid=41414643494542" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102); text-decoration: none;">Lowell E. Schnipper, M.D., Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center</a>; <a href="http://www.centralgeorgiacancercare.com/dr-frederick-schnell.php" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102); text-decoration: none;">Frederick M. Schnell, M.D., Central Georgia Cancer Care</a>; <a href="http://doctors.dana-farber.org/directory/profile.asp?dbase=main&setsize=16&picture_id=2705957&grouptype_typeid_data=1&gs=c&nxtfmt=c&display=Y&oldurl=Y&pict_id=2705957" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102); text-decoration: none;">Deborah Schrag, M.D., Dana-Farber Cancer Institute</a>; <a href="http://med-www02.bsd.uchicago.edu/339/FacultyPro/faculty_profile.aspx?empl_id=12953" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102); text-decoration: none;">Ya-Chen Tina Shih, Ph.D., University of Chicago</a>; <a href="http://www.cmoh.org/staff.php?id=1" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102); text-decoration: none;">John D. Sprandio, M.D., Consultants in Medical Oncology and Hematology</a>; <a href="http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/doctors/results/directory/profile/8283165/thomas-smith" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102); text-decoration: none;">Thomas J. Smith, M.D., Johns Hopkins University</a>; <a href="http://pennoncology.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=142%3Aarthur-p-staddon-md&Itemid=77" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102); text-decoration: none;">Arthur P. Staddon, M.D., Pennsylvania Oncology Hematology Associates</a>; <a href="http://www.massgeneral.org/doctors/doctor.aspx?id=17359" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102); text-decoration: none;">Jennifer S. Temel, M.D., Massachusetts General Hospital</a></font></em></div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'"><br><a href="http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/23/a-plan-to-fix-cancer-care/?src=recg&pagewanted=print">http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/23/a-plan-to-fix-cancer-care/?src=recg&pagewanted=print</a>    </font>

A Plan To Fix Cancer Care - NYTimes.com

This year, more than 1.6 million Americans — 0.5 percent of the population — will receive a diagnosis of cancer. Their treatment will consum...

IWs Babe of the Week...The Jaymom!!

9:00 PM Tukiyooo 0

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">IWS Radio will be LIVE today from Noon-2 PM ET on Blog Talk Radio with our Palm Funday Show, but in addition to talking about Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey and getting spanked with palm fronds, we will have a boatload of Birthday shout-outs to um...shout-out.<br /><br />And, our friends...there will be no bigger shout-out than to a loud, proud, and sassy southern woman who celebrates her Birthday TODAY.<br /><br />That's right folks....You know her; you love her, and she is the bestest mom in the entire world...<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE6odw08ziYFIQnF7-tVdA_-lFBF7UR09r6-h1TCLDIyqXCHVarGzkgaNZoWk_VzgAUL34oUVnS7yrF0FZHHBttcRPY9dqboM6dLgoMjHpF2-ytvuXx7_MBRUkQjwBi-Mo6vaJiabsRCo/s1600/Jaymom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE6odw08ziYFIQnF7-tVdA_-lFBF7UR09r6-h1TCLDIyqXCHVarGzkgaNZoWk_VzgAUL34oUVnS7yrF0FZHHBttcRPY9dqboM6dLgoMjHpF2-ytvuXx7_MBRUkQjwBi-Mo6vaJiabsRCo/s400/Jaymom.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />The Jayyyyyyyyyyymom!!<br /><br />And she is our IWS Babe of the Week.<br /><br />So, join us from Noon-2 PM ET on Blog Talk Radio today, as we talk Jesus, Jaymom, John, Joshua and a host of other things.<br /><br />To catch us LIVE today at Noon ET click<a href="http://www.blogtalkradio.com/im-with-stupid/2013/03/24/palm-funday"> <i><span style="color: blue;">HERE.</span></i></a><br /><br />It's going to be a Palm Funday that you will soon not forget!!<br /><br /></div>

IWs Babe of the Week...The Jaymom!!

IWS Radio will be LIVE today from Noon-2 PM ET on Blog Talk Radio with our Palm Funday Show, but in addition to talking about Jesus riding i...

Poor puppy

PERU AND COLOMBIA:

LATIN AMERICA AND EUROPE:

A Plan To Fix Cancer Care - NYTimes.com

IWs Babe of the Week...The Jaymom!!

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