News and AnalysIs for

Ecopetrol’s (NYSE:EC) board of directors voted in the government’s official candidate for the role of company president. Former Finance Minister Juan Carlos Echeverry takes the wheel of the NOC at one of its most complex moments.

The graph shows Ecopetrol’s attributed Net Income to its Refining and Petrochemicals line of business for the full year 2014 and prior years. The good news is that things are not as bad as last year. The bad news is fairly obvious: it still lost nearly US$450M.

Ecopetrol posted a steep drop in profits in 2014 as the fall in the price of oil and a rise in costs took a hit on the company’s financial results.

The Minister of Mines and Energy Tomás González was on hand to herald the inauguration of Equion’s Floreña central processing facility (CPF), which he said is more important than ever considering the fall in oil prices.

GeoPark (NYSE:GPRK) says that new growth from an expansion of low risk, low cast and high netback fields in the Tigana and Tua fields, in the Llanos 34 block, contributed strongly to growth in its reserves.

Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) grew its P1 reserves to 2,084mmboe in 2014, an increase of 5.7% compared to the previous year. Growth mainly came from revisions in existing fields and its reserves/production ratio is now 8.6 years.

Canacol Energy (TSX:CNE) highlighted its growing success with gas resources in Colombia in its fourth quarter 2014 (2QFY2015) results. However the firm was still hit by the devaluation of the Colombian peso and drop in the price of oil, and posted a US$46M net loss. We want to focus on the larger issue of what we can see in Canacol’s results that has implications for the broader industry

Despite enacting a cost cutting program, Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) says it is planning to keep its production at the projected level of 710,000 bd, assuming an international oil price of US$40-US$50.

Parex Resources (TSX:PXT) published the results of its annual independent reserves assessment through the end of 2014, which showed a 114% increase in 2P reserve growth compared to 2013.

Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) has been hit hard by guerrilla attacks, a poor discovery record and now the fall in oil prices. But it is a similar fate for other Latin American NOCs, if not worse. Petrobras (NYSE:PBR) has been rocked by corruption scandals and Pemex’s ability to function in a privatized market is questionable as the oil price slide cuts into its budget. Let us not even mention PDVSA.