ECOPETROL REDUCES ITS PRODUCTION TARGET

ECOPETROL REDUCES ITS PRODUCTION TARGET

The Colombian public oil company listed in the BVC (Spanish acronym for the Colombian Stock Exchange) reduced its production target for the year.

The company established 780.000 average barrels per day exploited for the current year, after being forecasted 800.000 average barrels per day.

The reason for this change in the forecast for the production target of the year has its most important reason in the terrorist attacks to the transportation infrastructure of the pipeline which ends in Coveñas, where Ecopetrol has a refinery.

According to the president of the company, Dr. Javier Genaro Gutierrez, the company lost 11.000 barrels per day due to these attacks and this is generating a negative impact in the balance sheet of the company. In addition to that, the international prices of the crude, the increasing operative costs and operative expenses were important factors for the decrease of its consolidated net income of the second quarter in 2.50% annually.

This is a clear proof that the company is starting to decelerate its net income generation, which is probably driven by the fact that the domestic oil prices are not representatives of the international prices, generating a gap in the sales incomes of the company.