Ecopetrol's quarterly profit drops by 61%

Ecopetrol, Colombia's state-owned oil company, reported on Wednesday a 60.8% decline in profits for the fourth quarter compared to a year earlier. This was due to lower Brent crude oil prices, lower gas sales at home, and a weaker currency.

The company reported in a filing with Colombia's stock exchange that the net profit for the third quarter was 1.53 trillion Colombian Pesos ($403 millions) on total sales which fell 17.2%, to?28.82 billion pesos.

Ecopetrol's shares, which are owned by the Colombian Government to an 88.5%, saw its total oil and gas production drop by 0.1% compared to the same quarter in?2024, down at 729,200 barrels equivalent per day (boed).

Despite a decline in overall production, crude oil production grew by 3% on the year to 574.800 barrels per?day.

Ecopetrol CEO Ricardo Roa stated at a recent press conference that "we are recording the highest crude oil production domestically in the last five year".

The company confirmed that it expects the total production to rise to 735,000 Boed by 2026.

In the third quarter, EBITDA (earnings before taxes, depreciation, and amortization) fell 16.2% on an annual basis to 9.96 trillion pesos.

Roa said that the company plans to drill 10 exploratory wells in this year. The company exceeded its drilling goal for 2025 by completing 16 oil wells instead of the 10 that were originally planned.

The company announced in November an "investment plan" for 2026 that ranged from '22 trillion pesos to 27 trillion pesos (from $5.79 billion up to $7.11billion).

(source: Reuters)