Colombia’s state oil firm Ecopetrol said on Monday 2010 net earnings rose 59 percent to 8.34 trillion pesos ($4.39 billion) versus 2009, the second highest earnings in its history helped by increased production and higher global oil prices.
Ecopetrol — Colombia’s largest oil producer and 89.9 percent state controlled — has an ambitious $80 billion investment plan to boost production to 1.3 million barrels per day (bpd) by 2020.
“The higher production volumes, increased oil reserves and exports and the increase in international prices explain these results,” the company said in a statement.
Ecopetrol Group production rose 18.3 percent to 615,900 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) versus the previous year, the firm said. External sales rose nearly 80 percent to 21.9 trillion pesos.
Ecopetrol said total investment in 2010 fell 5 percent to $6 billion versus 2009, principally explained by a 74 percent drop in acquisitions. Investment in production, however, jumped 40 percent to $3 billion last year.
The company — listed in Bogota, Toronto, Lima and New York — said crude exports rose 33.8 percent last year to 311,600 barrels of oil per day (bpd) versus 2009 due to more growth in Central America, Canada and Europe.
Ecopetrol, Colombia’s largest oil producer, sent almost 60 percent of crude exports to the United States, followed by around 17 percent to the Far East.
Heavy crude oil production made up 43 percent of total crude output, up from 36 percent in 2009, it said. The export crude basket price rose 29 percent to $72.6 per barrel versus the previous year.
Latin America’s No. 4 oil producer has seen a massive increase in oil and mining investment since a 2002 U.S.-backed security crackdown against leftist rebels.