Two complementary reports published by Naturgas on April 24 cover the same strategic development from different angles: the operational details of the Frontera Energy-Ecopetrol regasification project at Puerto Bahía, and a site visit by Ecopetrol’s acting president to inspect progress firsthand.
A mandatory government filing submitted to Congress in February 2026 set off a wave of concern in Colombia’s energy sector after it surfaced publicly on April 28, with media reports highlighting that the Petro administration had identified more than CoP$50T in Ecopetrol subsidiaries and affiliated assets as candidates for potential divestiture. A closer reading of the primary document — and the legislation behind it — tells a considerably more prosaic story.
The Ecopetrol-Petrobras Colombia consortium has confirmed that first gas from the offshore Sirius field will be delivered in 2030, with the project currently in the contracting phase ahead of construction. The announcement came from both companies’ presidents at the Naturgas Congress in Cartagena.
Ecopetrol announced on April 23, 2026 that it had entered into a Share Purchase Agreement to acquire approximately 26% of Brazilian oil and gas company Brava Energía S.A. — the second-largest independent listed company in Brazil by reserves and production — from a group of significant shareholders including Jive, Yellowstone, and Bloco Somah Printemps Quantum.
Moody’s Ratings downgraded Ecopetrol’s global credit rating one notch from Ba1 to Ba2 on April 23, 2026, and simultaneously shifted the company’s outlook from stable to negative — the second credit action against the state oil company in less than a month, following a similar move by S&P roughly 20 days earlier.
The Barrancabermeja refinery, Ecopetrol’s flagship processing facility in Santander, has reached its highest crude throughput in twenty years, processing 245,500 bd of crude — a level that has since climbed further to approximately 246,000 bd, according to Milton Lara, the plant’s acting general manager.
President Gustavo Petro used a cabinet meeting to announce that expiring Ecopetrol contracts would no longer receive automatic extensions, instead being subjected to open competitive processes.
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.
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.
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