Colombia’s state oil company Ecopetrol sees
production at 457,000 barrels per day next year and plans to increase
investments by 35 percent to $6.2 billion financed mostly with its own
resources, a top company official said Thursday.
Ecopetrol, which sold 10 percent of its shares to private
investors last year, accounts for most of Colombia’s oil output, which is
expected to reach 600,000 bpd this year.
Colombia’s government hopes for record oil sector investment and
exploration this year, especially in heavy crude deposits, as violence from
the country’s four-decade long conflict with left-wing guerrillas eases
under President Álvaro Uribe. (Reuters)