Inspenet, August 14, 2023.
Ecopetrol, the second largest oil company in Latin America, has announced the discovery of hydrocarbons in the town of Orito, located in the department of Putumayo. The Alqamari-2 well has revealed the presence of oil and gas with daily production exceeding 1,800 barrels .
The news of this discovery was communicated by Ecopetrol through its main account on the social network X (formerly Twitter), where the president of the company, Ricardo Roa Barragán, provided a detailed description of the relevant aspects of this discovery in the region. from Putumayo.
“I want to announce an important discovery of a new oil and gas existence well located in the municipality of Orito, in Putumayo, where it was successfully drilled to a depth of about 2,800 meters in the Alqamari-2 exploratory well,” reported the President of the company.
The discovery of a low-density hydrocarbon with an API index of 31 has been achieved in the Alqamari-2 well. At this site, associated gas production reaches 825,000 cubic feet per day, with a water content of less than 1%.
The Alqamari-2 drilling is located in an area of direct operation of Ecopetrol, which owns all the rights and responsibilities of the Western Area Exploitation Agreement established in collaboration with the National Hydrocarbons Agency (ANH).
This reservoir called Arenas N has yielded positive results for both gas and oil, a highly significant discovery since this crude is close to existing infrastructures. The leader of the state company stressed that this new resource will be incorporated into the system and the market in the near future.
“With this we are contributing to the policy of commitment that we have established upon arrival. We’re going to keep looking at the existing wells and fields for more oil and more gas. This improves our level of reserves, but also our ability to extract and commercially exploit crude of this nature,” added Roa.
Ecopetrol’s results
Ecopetrol has recently disclosed its operating and financial results for the second quarter of 2023. Although these results were largely in line with market expectations, the balance sheet left a bittersweet feeling due to declining earnings.
The company reported that at the end of the second quarter of this year, revenues reached 34.3 trillion pesos . However, the profit stood at 4.1 trillion pesos, which represents a decrease of 61% compared to the same period of the previous year, when profits reached 10.4 trillion pesos.
During the second quarter of 2023, notable milestones were achieved in operational terms, such as record production in the last three years and advances in refinery loads. From a financial perspective, investments totaling 6.3 trillion pesos were channeled and 18 trillion pesos were transferred to the public treasury.
With revenues totaling 34.3 trillion pesos during the second quarter, a net profit of 4.1 trillion pesos and an ebitda (financial indicator used to measure business performance) of 14.6 trillion pesos, along with an EBITDA margin of 42.5%.
In the midst of the turmoil experienced in recent days as a result of the statements by the president’s eldest son, Nicolás Petro, the leader of Ecopetrol, Ricardo Roa, emphasized his intention to continue in his position and expressed satisfaction with the results obtained in the first half of the year
The president of the oil company considers that an important performance has been achieved, and explained that the decrease in profits is due to factors beyond Ecopetrol’s control. He made reference, for example, to the fact that during the period from April to June of this year, the average price of a barrel of Brent oil (which serves as a reference in Colombia) was USD 68.4, in contrast to USD 105.2 from the previous year.
The executive mentioned that the resources that are not destined to the utility that goes to the Nation are redirected through transfers and the established taxes; while the surcharge impacted 1.4 trillion pesos in profits, the non-deductibility of royalties amounted to 0.4 trillion pesos.
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