State-controlled oil company Ecopetrol said it will create a subsidiary to develop offshore activities in Colombia.
The Bogota-based company said in a statement that its board “authorized the creation of a Colombian company indirectly wholly owned by Ecopetrol S.A.”
Once the new subsidiary is created, Ecopetrol will seek the National Hydrocarbon Agency’s approval to “assign Ecopetrol S.A.’s contractual rights under the exploration and production contracts of the offshore blocks in which it is operator and non-operator,” the statement read.
Ecopetrol, Colombia’s largest corporation, is one of the world’s 50 largest oil companies and among the four biggest in Latin America.
In addition to Colombia, where it accounts for more than 60 percent of domestic crude output, Ecopetrol has operations in Brazil, Peru and the United States.