Ecopetrol shares fall after Colombian Petro demands sale of US Fracking business

Ecopetrol, Colombia's largest state-owned energy company, fell by 2.20% to 2,005 pesos (US $0.48) each in the early hours of trading on Wednesday. This was after President Gustavo Petro demanded that the company sell its U.S. Fracking business.

Petro's remarks late on Tuesday came after the news Monday that Ecopetrol agreed to extend their joint venture with Occidental Petroleum at the Permian Basin in Texas. The New York ADRs of the company also dropped 2.84%, to $9.57 a unit.

Ecopetrol has been able to maintain its production despite a decline in output in other parts of the group. Ecopetrol has reported lower output in all three quarters of 2024 than it did in the same period in 2023, when the Permian production is removed.

Ecopetrol reported that in the third quarter of last year, the Permian Basin operations represented close to 14%, or 102,600 barrels equivalents per day.

Ecopetrol estimates that the joint venture extended with Occidental will produce an additional 90 000 boed.

(source: Reuters)