Ricarod Roa, CEO of the Colombian state oil company, said that this result was due to the fall in the price of crude oil and the exchange rate.
Ecopetrol presented its 2024 financial results on Tuesday: the company recorded revenues of $133.3 trillion, equivalent to US$38,187 million ($9.8 trillion less than in 2023), profits of $14.9 trillion or US$3,597 million (21.7% less than in 2023, when they totaled $19.1 trillion), an EBITDA of $54.1 trillion (approximately US$13 billion) and an EBITDA margin of 41%. The comparison is made with a year of red numbers, since in 2023 the company's profits fell 42% compared to 2022.
Total transfers from the Ecopetrol Group to shareholders amounted to $42 billion (US$ 101 billion).
The company noted that between January and December of last year it achieved a production of 176,000 barrels of crude oil equivalent per day, about 16,000 barrels more than in 2023. This is the highest production in nine years.
The volume of hydrocarbons transported by transportation systems was 1,119,000 barrels per day, with an increase of 5,800 barrels per day compared to 2023.
During the press conference, Ricardo Roa, president of Ecopetrol, said that this is the third best year in the company's history (after 2022 and 2023).
Regarding the drop in profits, Roa argued that it was due to the fall in the price of crude oil and the fall in the exchange rate and that, without these impacts, profits would have been $6.1 billion higher or about US$ 1,473 million (that is, they would have added up to $21 billion or US$ 5,070 million). In those $6.1 billion less, the exchange rate weighed 49%, inflation 15% and prices 36%.
The price of Brent oil in 2022 was, on average, US$99; in 2023 it was US$82 and in 2024, US$82.
Roa highlighted that the company recorded a 44% exploratory success rate, with seven successful wells out of 16 drilled in 2024. That is why he said that, although it is claimed that the company is not exploring, in reality it is being more efficient and taking advantage of the contracts that are already in force.
Investments in 2024 totaled US$6,119 million (24.9 trillion) and were within the range established for the year.
By 2025, the company's goal is to drill 10 exploratory wells and produce between 740,000 and 750,000 barrels of crude oil equivalent per day.
“Over the past three years we have delivered the highest dividend returns to shareholders in history, averaging $141.1 billion,” Roa said.
The balance of the Fuel Price Stabilization Fund increased from $20.51 billion in 2023 to $7.62 billion in 2024.
Reserves were replenished at 104%, doubling the addition of proven reserves compared to 2023.
This Tuesday, Ecopetrol awarded and signed the first regasification services contract with the company PIO SAS (Puertos, Inversiones y Obras SAS). This new regasification alternative on the Colombian Pacific coast allows for new sources of supply to meet the demand for natural gas in the interior of the country, prior to the entry of offshore projects.
The infrastructure will have a regasification capacity of 60 million cubic feet per day (MMCFD). It is expected to come into operation in the second quarter of 2026, offering receiving and storage activities in Buenaventura and regasification in Buga, Valle del Cauca. Roa said that they will soon announce the sale of this gas to the market and that “it will be much cheaper than transporting imported gas from SPEC LNG (the Cartagena regasification plant).”
The new board of directors of the company will be announced at the General Shareholders' Meeting on March 28. Edwin Palma, who was appointed Minister of Mines and Energy, is expected to resign from the board of directors soon. This departure would leave four positions vacant: in addition to Palma's, those of Luis Alberto Zuleta and Juan José Echavarría, who resigned in August 2024, and that of Gonzalo Hernández, who announced his departure last week.
