News and AnalysIs for

Five of Ecopetrol’s nine board members received an extraordinary summons by email on the morning of April 15 and gathered at Casa de Nariño with President Gustavo Petro — a meeting that triggered a sharp dispute between competing accounts of what was discussed and what may come next for Ricardo Roa.

A Corficolombiana research report cited by Bloomberg Línea delivers the starkest assessment yet of Colombia’s gas supply trajectory: production is in freefall, imports are surging to compensate, and the country is becoming dangerously dependent on infrastructure never designed for the role it is now playing.

Ecopetrol acting president Juan Carlos Hurtado confirmed that the company is actively pursuing a US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) license to allow both Ecopetrol and Grupo ISA to import gas from Venezuela and reactivate bilateral energy projects — the clearest public signal yet that the NOC views Venezuela as a near-term operational priority rather than a long-term aspiration.

Ecopetrol has commissioned Colombia’s first wet-pelletized sulfur solidification plant at its Refinería de Cartagena (Reficar), opening a new downstream business line that could supply up to 70% of domestic demand and generate export volumes for European markets.

The Unión Sindical Obrera (USO) has presented Ecopetrol with a 150-page list of demands for a new three-year Collective Labor Agreement covering 2026–2028, setting up what could be a contentious negotiation at Colombia’s largest company.

In a televised council of ministers in February, Colombian President Gustavo Petro said Ecopetrol would be bankrupt if oil fell below US$60/bl. We don’t expect Petro to get his sums right but we thought we’d better check, just in case.