The Regional Association of Oil, Gas and Biofuels Sector in Latin America and the Caribbean (ARPEL) has elected new authorities. Carlos Colo, Executive Exploration and Development Manager at YPF, will occupy the highest position of the Association's Board of Directors. Colo is geologist with over 30 years’ experience in E&P. He has been in charge of the exploration at Vaca Muerta, and previously, held positions as Director of the Technical Department, Director of Las Heras Economic Unit and General Manager in Colombia.

In addition, representatives of ARPEL member companies elected ANCAP -after being the Chairman of the Board- and reelected Pluspetrol to occupy the first and second Vice-Presidencies respectively, which will be exercised by Benito Piñeiro and Claudio De Diego.

Piñeiro is a Public Accountant and Bachelor in Business Administration and was General Manager at ANCAP from 1996 to March 2005, date in which he started acting as Advisor to the Board until now.

For his part, De Diego is an Industrial Engineer and has held various positions within Pluspetrol such as Worldwide Well Construction Manager, Sales Director and General Manager in Peru. In 2012, he was appointed as Senior Vice President of Global Production Assets.

The election of ARPEL new authorities took place during the Annual Assembly of Representatives which was recently held in Bogota, Colombia.

The Board is also comprised of other seven member companies, which will be represented by the following senior executives: Lenin Armijos (EP-Petroecuador); João Araujo Figueira (Petrobras); Maria Isabel Fernandez Alba (Repsol); Alfredo Coronel Escobar (Petroperu); Sara Salazar (Recope); Veronica Rollandi (Spectrum) and Kyle Chapman (Weatherford).

It was also defined the composition of the Fiscal Commission for the period 2016-2018: Ariel Azar from ENAP, who will be in charge of the Presidency, Alex Moody-Stuart from Schlumberger and Bob Fryklund from IHS.

ARPEL is a non-profit association gathering oil, gas and biofuels sector companies and institutions in Latin America and the Caribbean. Founded in 1965 as a vehicle of cooperation and reciprocal assistance among sector companies, its main purpose is to actively contribute to industry integration and competitive growth, and to sustainable energy development in the region.

Its membership currently represents over 90% of the upstream and downstream activities in Latin America and the Caribbean and includes national and international operating companies, providers of technology, goods and services for the value chain, and national and international sector institutions.