Colombia's President-Elect Santos To Encourage Oil Investment

25th Jun 2010 17:28

DOW JONES NEWSWIRES CARTAGENA, Colombia (Dow Jones)--Colombian President-elect Juan Manuel Santos Friday said his government will encourage investment in the oil industry and will be stricter in environment rules to oil companies. "We will update the regulatory framework to encourage investment even more," Santos said in a speech during an oil conference held in the Caribbean city of Cartagena. He said his government will encourage investment in pipelines and exporting infrastructure to avoid the creation of bottleneck between oil and gas fields and export facilities. He said the government will prevent state-controlled oil company Ecopetrol SA (ECOPETROL.BO), which owns swathes of the country's pipeline network, from abusing its dominant position. Santos, who is the political heir of outgoing president Alvaro Uribe, also said he wants oil and gas companies to stick to the toughest standards in security to avoid polluting accidents such as the BP PLC (BP.BP.LN) oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Santos won the presidential elections on June 20 and will take power on August 7. During the campaign, he pledged to continue Uribe's pro-business and tough-on-guerillas policies that made him widely popular in the business community. -By Inti Landauro, Dow Jones Newswires; 57-310-867 65 42; [email protected] (END) Dow Jones Newswires June 25, 2010 12:28 ET (16:28 GMT)