Colombia’s largest oil producer, Ecopetrol, has lowered its oil production target for 2012 to an average of 780,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day from 800,000 boepd previously, according to a presentation published on Wednesday.
Once seen as a failing state, Colombia began to turn its image around after a 2002 U.S.-backed security crackdown against leftist rebels made the country safer and opened up more areas to oil exploration and boosted crude production.
Ecopetrol’s presentation on its website did not give a reason for the lowered target for this year, but the company was holding a conference call for investors later on Wednesday to discuss the results from the second quarter.
Ecopetrol’s shares dropped 1.6 percent on Wednesday after it announced that consolidated net income fell 2.5 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier to 3.65 trillion pesos (US$2 billion), lower than analysts’ expectations.
In the second quarter, group output, including operations outside of Colombia, rose 4.8 percent to 762,200 boepd from the same period last year.