Ricardo Roa’s leave from Ecopetrol expires July 27th and under his contract he would legally return as company president on July 28th – just ten days before the August 7th inauguration of Abelardo de la Espriella, who has called him a thief and a criminal and whose government’s stated first act is to convene an extraordinary shareholders meeting to replace him.
Brazil’s securities regulator CVM handed Ecopetrol a procedural victory on July 15th, ruling in favor of Ecopetrol Investimentos do Brasil in the administrative appeal that had kept the Brava Energía tender offer suspended since June 19th.
Writing in Portafolio, Sylvia Escovar – former president of Terpel and current chair of the GeoPark board – published a pointed opinion piece framing the question of who leads Ecopetrol not as a personnel decision but as an institutional one with consequences for the entire country.
Ecopetrol published its formal El Niño contingency plan on July 9, revealing the most consequential near-term contribution it can make to the national electricity system: two regasification projects that together will add 360 GBTUD of gas import capacity, equivalent to approximately 35% of national gas demand which could support up to 1,000 MW of additional thermoelectric generation through the critical dry season.
Ecopetrol has temporarily suspended the contracting process for shutdown and maintenance services at its Barrancabermeja and Cartagena refineries — a procurement worth approximately US$700M — following a corruption scandal that combined an anonymous bribery complaint sent to board members in May with two internal memos from senior refinery officials demanding the process be frozen before the government handover.
Miguel Gómez Martínez, designated Finance Minister for the incoming de la Espriella administration, gave Valora Analitik his most candid assessment yet of Ecopetrol’s condition and the incoming government’s economic framework in a wide-ranging interview published July 4.
Cerro Matoso, the ferronickel producer in Córdoba owned by CoreX following South32’s exit, confirmed on July 1 that it has reduced operations by 25% due to gas supply restrictions already imposed by Canacol — a cut the company says puts hundreds of direct jobs and contracts with local suppliers and contractors at risk, along with royalty and tax flows to both the department and the national treasury.
More than one million Colombian families still rely on firewood or charcoal for cooking — among the most polluting and health-damaging combustion sources in daily domestic use — and Ecopetrol’s Gas Social program exists to close that gap one network connection at a time.
Colombia’s third LNG regasification project reached a visible construction milestone in late June when the Sociedad Portuaria Regional de Buenaventura received 30 heavy components — individual pieces weighing between 37 and 76 tonnes — destined for the regasification facility being built in Buga, Valle del Cauca.
Ecopetrol has delivered 52,300 school kits to children, youth, and teachers in 31 municipalities across nine departments, as part of the company’s Education and Sports investment line aimed at strengthening school retention and easing the back-to-school financial burden for families in the company’s areas of operation.
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