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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.

Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) is handing over three oil fields to its own subsidiary Hocol in Ortega, Tolima, which caused concern and even blockades by the local community.

Improvised, illegal and dangerous valves installed along Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) pipelines are causing it to lose a growing amount of crude, also resulting in risks of severe environmental damage.

Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) can celebrate that unlike nearly all of its private industry peers it has been able to post a profit in the third quarter of 2015, but it has seen its production fall slightly, and its E&P business continues to post losses. This has been compensated by its refining business to some degree, while transportation income nearly doubled.

The USO is planning a general strike in Ecopetrol’s (NYSE:EC) fields and facilities on November 17^th, which it claims is necessary to protect against mass layoffs being planned by multinationals.

After Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) said in no uncertain terms there is no money to modernize the Barrancabermeja Refinery despite outcry from residents, the oil workers union USO has charged that the NOC is planning to sell the unit, which the firm denies.

Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) continues to analyze its association contracts which are about to expire, and says that if it bolsters the company’s financial standing, it could repeat its decision made at the Rubiales-Piri and revert contracts. Around 45 association contracts between 2015-2041 could be reviewed.