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“Cash is King” says Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) president Juan Caros Echeverry about the outlook for 2016. Apart from keeping a firm control on its costs, the NOC is also looking to both sell participation in some offshore blocks and acquire shares of blocks in foreign waters.

Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) says that it will deepen its spending cuts and austerity program and reduce its investments in 2016 to US$4.8B, in a plan that looks to keep production at a similar level of 2015.

In his annual account rendering the General Controller (CGR) Edgardo Maya Villazón said that cost over-runs associated with the modernization of the Cartagena Refinery (Reficar) are one of his main concerns, and that the entity will soon release a report on its findings so far.

Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) has announced more cost cutting measures, one of its main strategies to keep the company profitable. The cuts will affect not just contractors but its staff, and comes as ECP’s stock falls to historic lows.

The battle over oil prices is a battle over production with Saudi Arabia saying it wants to regain US market share lost to higher-cost shale oil. But that is light oil and US refineries still need a significant supply of heavy crude due to the configuration of their plants. The graph shows that the US represents an increasing share of Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) exports, at least over the last six quarters.

Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) held a shareholders meeting in Medellín and said that it would strengthen its exploration activities abroad, setting an investment goal per year of US$1.25B on average, destined for the Gulf of Mexico, Peru, Brazil and Colombia’s offshore blocks.

Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) president Juan Carlos Echeverry said in a recent interview that the NOC’s cost cutting measures have been effective and its profits have fallen less than the global average due to the fall in oil prices. Even if the price of crude falls to US$30/barrel, and he says he will pray it does not, the company would remain profitable.

The Colombian State Council found that the firm Gran Tierra Energy Colombia (TSX: GTE) has failed to meet the terms of a contract with Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) and therefore owes the state oil firm CoP$6.2B (US$2M).

Thousands of Colombians invested their savings in Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) following its market debut in 2007. Those that did not sell off at its peak have been left to watch their investment’s value shrink, and in early November the NOC’s stock fell below its IPO value on the Bogotá exchange. What options do these small investors have to recovery their lost value?

Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) says it has finished a demonstration plant in Chichimene in the Meta Department which uses a technology to lighten heavy and extra heavy crudes, allowing them to be shipped in pipelines while cutting the company’s need to purchase naphtha as a diluent.