Ecopetrol's Colombian third-quarter profits drop by 28%

Ecopetrol, Colombia's largest state-owned oil company, reported on Wednesday a 28% decline in its third-quarter net profits to 3.65 trillion Pesos ($826.95 millions) compared with the same period in 2013. The main reason for the drop was the fall in value of the Colombian currency.

Ecopetrol reported that the total sales fell 1.5%, to 34.61 trillion Pesos, in the period July-September, despite a slight increase in output.

Ecopetrol’s net profit in the first nine-months of 2024 fell by 26% from the same period the previous year to 11,04 trillion pesos.

Ecopetrol's chief executive Ricardo Roa stated during a recent press conference that if the accounting was done in dollars instead of pesos, they would have reported a net income of not 11 trillion, but 16 trillion.

He said that if you normalize or remove the effect of the exchange rate on these results, it will affect them by 67%.

Ecopetrol also said that the lower oil prices and inflation had an impact on the results, along with the impact the stronger dollar has on the Colombian Peso.

Ecopetrol reported that the company's EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization) fell by 13% in comparison to the same period last year, falling to 14 trillion pesos.

The company reported that EBITDA for the nine-month period ended September 30 fell 13% to 42,3 trillion pesos.

Ecopetrol’s total production for the third quarter increased by 1.8% on an annual basis to 754,400 barrels equivalents per day (boepd). This was boosted by the company’s operations in Permian Basin in the United States.

The company intends to invest between 23 trillion pesos and 27 trillion in 2024.

(source: Reuters)