Armando Zamora, independent consultant and former Director General of Colombia’s National Hydrocarbon Agency (ANH) will deliver an address at the upcoming Trinidad and Tobago Energy Conference.

Mr. Zamora’s unique perspective and experiences as the former leader of Colombia’s state oil regulator will bring an added dimension to the conference.

Given Trinidad and Tobago’s goal to revitalize oil production, there are several lessons that the country can learn from Colombia on attracting private sector investment into state energy enterprises to boost production.

In the past four years, Colombia has increased its oil production by 43% after undergoing a series of institutional reforms.
The country assessed its faltering production and decided to open its state oil company to private sector equity investment.

The move helped to improve corporate governance and performance.
ANH was also reformed to promote investment into the energy sector. ANH’s aggressive marketing campaigns and their interface with the investment community helped Colombia understand just what was necessary for businesses to thrive and return to the country.

The fiscal regime was also revamped, legal statutes acting as barriers to foreign businesses were amended and environmental regulations, to abet rather than hinder activity, were implemented.
These institutional, regulatory and fiscal reforms have seen a spike in production in Colombia and the Chamber feels Trinidad and Tobago can definitely learn from Colombia’s model through Mr. Zamora’s participation at the conference.