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February 27, 2008 |
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ECOPETROL: Investing US$38 Billion for Exploration & Production A spokesperson of Colombian state-owned oil firm Ecopetrol told Business News Americas that the company will invest US$38 billion for new exploration and production activities through 2015. Ecopetrol disclosed last week that it would invest US$60 billion through 2015. The US$38 billion is part of its US$60 billion investment plan, BNamericas says, citing the spokesperson. BNamericas relates that Ecopetrol will allot US$20 billion for its downstream operations and US$2 billion for corporate operations including information technology and human resources. The spokesperson told BNamericas that Ecopetrol will use the new investment to boost output to one million barrels of oil equivalent per day by 2015 from the current 400,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. About 80% of the increased production would come from crude oil, while 20% would be from natural gas. Ecopetrol will drill an average of 28 wells per year through 2015, the report relates. The company had drilled 13 wells last year and it will continue acquiring new reserves abroad, BNamericas states. Ecopetrol is an integrated-oil company that is wholly owned by the Colombian government. The company's activities include exploration for and production of crude oil and natural gas, as well as refining, transportation, and marketing of crude oil, natural gas and refined products. Ecopetrol is Latin America's fourth-largest integrated-oil concern. Operations are organized into Exploration & Production, Refining & Marketing, Transportation, and International Commerce & Gas. Ecopetrol produced 385,000 barrels a day of oil and gas in 2006 and has 330,000 barrels a day of refining capacity, according to the company's Web site. In 2005 it produced about 60 percent of Colombia's daily output. * * * As reported in the Troubled Company Reporter-Latin America on Nov. 6, 2007, Fitch Ratings affirmed Ecopetrol S.A.'s foreign and local currency issuer default ratings at 'BB+' and 'BBB-', respectively. |
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