Colombia’s State Oil Firm Sees Q2 Profit Drop by 17%

Colombia’s state-controlled oil company Ecopetrol reported a net income for the second quarter that was down by 17.4% compared to the same period of 2023, due to external factors in variable market conditions.

Net income stood at $839 million (3.376 trillion Colombian pesos), down from $1 billion (4.087 trillion pesos) for the second quarter of 2023.

Operating income fell by 9.2%, while the core earnings margin stood at 43%, thanks to “exceptional operational performance, demonstrated by increased production and transportation volumes along with stable refinery throughputs,” Ecopetrol said.

Results in the quarter benefited from improved crude oil spreads and higher Brent prices, but the results were impacted by external factors, the company added.

The downstream business faced a challenging environment, as did the downstream segments of all integrated energy companies in the second quarter.

Colombia has said it is looking to increase its oil production to 1 million barrels per day by encouraging drillers to ramp up activity in underutilized exploration blocks.

Another major state-controlled firm in the region, Brazil’s Petrobras, swung to a net loss in the second quarter and attributed it to unfavorable exchange rates and a one-off tax charge.

The net result came in at some $470 million but excluding the tax charge, Petrobras said, it would have posted a net profit of $5.4 billion. The company, however, presented the tax charge in a positive light.

Petrobras boasted its lowest debt level since the third quarter of 2008, at $26.3 billion, and a 12.5% increase in first-half capex, to $6.4 billion. Going forward, however, investment will shrink, with the figure for the full year getting revised down to between $13.5 billion and $14.5 billion, from $18.5 billion in earlier plans.

Last week, Brazil’s Petrobras and Colombia’s Ecopetrol confirmed a natural gas discovery at the Uchuva-2 well off Colombia's coast. Uchuva-2 is a deepwater well with natural gas previously discovered in the nearby Uchuva-1 well, drilled in 2022.  

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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