Colombia is attracting a lot of capital to invest in oil exploration. And capital inflows to the petroleum sector has actually increased in the first quarter of the year with a volume that reached no more and no less than U.S. $ 2,200 million (according to the Colombian Association Petroleum Engineers a "Acipet-) . This flow of investment represents 60% of what the industry received in 2007. Will it be a contagion effect? Well, hear about the contagion effect generates great fear, because I always associated these words have negative effects of crises that have occurred in countries. But perhaps the large number of oil discoveries that have occurred in the region may be encouraging investors to try their luck in other tierrasa but always Latinoamericaa Will they? No, of course not.

I think more likely what is happening is the product, besides the great price of oil, a job many years of institutional strengthening in the Colombian economy has laid the groundwork for foreign capital choose to invest in an activity as risky and long term as it is the oil business. For the president of Acipet, Hernando Barrero Chavez these investments are the result of the peace with investors for clarity in contracts and respect the rules of the game. The creation of the National Hydrocarbons Agency, also became one of the pillars of this investment boom the sector and they also understood Barrero Chavez: a Ya spent that time in which Ecopetrol was operator and representative of the government and the entity responsible for the country's oil reserves.