Ecopetrol plans $ 6.2 bn for 2009 capex
Colombian state oil company Ecopetrol plans $ 6.2 bn in capital spending in 2009, CEO Javier Gutierrez said, up 29 %
from last year.
"We expect to align our investments with our cash flow," Gutierrez said. The capital spending plan is a 29 % boost
from the $ 4.8 bn spent in 2008, Ecopetrol said. Of the total spending, $ 2.7 bn is slated for production and $ 1 bn
for exploration, Gutierrez said. Of the remaining allocations listed, Ecopetrol plans to spend $ 870 mm for
acquisitions, $ 81 mm for refining and petrochemicals, $ 60 mm for transportation, and $ 18 mm for what Ecopetrol
called "other investments."
Gutierrez said Ecopetrol is pressing contractors for new terms given the fall in crude oil prices.
"We are trying to renegotiate some contracts," he said. "That is an overall strategy for all our activities."
Asked by an analyst about the prospect of Ecopetrol's future EBITDA "deteriorating" amid sinking crude oil prices,
Ecopetrol CFO Adriana Echeverri Gutierrez said "we cannot speak about deterioration."
"We are returning to the same (oil price) levels" comparable to some years ago, with prices seen in "the $ 40s and $
30s," she said.
Ecopetrol earlier reported unconsolidated net profits for the fourth quarter of 2008 of $ 817 mm, up 48.2 %.
