S&P Global Ratings cut Ecopetrol’s long-term credit rating from BB to BB- with a stable outlook in April, following its simultaneous downgrade of Colombia’s sovereign rating — the worst in the country’s history at that level.
Ecopetrol’s share price has staged a striking recovery — up roughly 20% through March on the back of Brent crude surging past US$100/bbl from sub-US$70 levels before the Middle East conflict — but a convergence of analyst commentary, market data and reputational indices paints a more troubling picture of the state of Colombia’s state oil company.
Ecopetrol’s acting president Juan Carlos Hurtado signaled in a press conference that the company is actively reviewing whether to revise its investment plan upward in response to the sharp rise in international crude prices triggered by the US-Israel conflict with Iran.
In his first press conference as acting president of Ecopetrol, Juan Carlos Hurtado Parra set a deliberately operational tone, laying out eight strategic priorities for the company while distancing himself from the political turbulence that preceded his appointment.
Presidential candidate Iván Cepeda, running on a platform broadly aligned with the Petro government’s ideology, used a campaign rally to outline his energy policy intentions for Ecopetrol, firmly rejecting any dilution of the state’s controlling stake in the company.
The governance fallout from Ricardo Roa’s leave of absence from Ecopetrol’s presidency has taken a new turn, with a minority shareholder of ISA filing a formal petition questioning whether his temporary removal from the helm of the parent company also affects his roles on the boards of subsidiaries ISA and Hocol.
Ecopetrol assumed direct operation of the gas processing plant at the Gibraltar field on April 1, 2026, following the expiry of a 15-year BOMT (Build, Operate, Maintain and Transfer) contract with Gas Gibraltar S.A.S.
Ecopetrol’s Board of Directors, at a meeting held on April 6, 2026, approved an unpaid leave of absence requested by company President Ricardo Roa Barragán, authorized under Section 3 of Article 23 of the company’s bylaws.
Ecopetrol has obtained water use certification for five additional production fields, bringing the total number of certified assets to 23 — a roster that includes the Barrancabermeja and Cartagena refineries.
The Refinería de Cartagena (Reficar) returned to normal operations by March 24, 2026, nine days after an electrical supply failure struck the facility on March 15. Ecopetrol confirmed that all processing units are operating normally and that the supply of refined fuels to the national market was maintained throughout the incident.
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