Ecopetrol reports that it expects to invest $3.5 to $4 billion in 2018, up 35% to 55% over the projected investment at year-end 2017.
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After two years of a successful transformation plan focused on cost reduction and capital discipline, the 2018 plan approved by the board of directors is aimed at increasing reserves and hydrocarbon production, capturing earnings through an improved international environment for the sector, and advancing along the path of efficiency.
Given the above, Ecopetrol is continuing to reduce its break-even price. In 2018 the company expects that it will have a positive net income at Brent prices up to $35 per barrel.
The plan provides that 85% of funds will be allocated to strategic investments in the exploration and production segments, with over $1 billion more invested in those segments than in 2017.
Highlights include drilling over 620 development wells and at least 12 exploratory wells, using 28 rigs and acquiring over 41,000 kilometers of seismic. This projected 2018 activity represents an increase of some 140 wells and the use of 16 additional rigs compared to 2017.
The 96% of the investment will be executed in Colombia, with the remainder allocated to the Ecopetrol Group's projects in the United States (Gulf of Mexico), Mexico, Brazil and Peru.
The investments will allow the Ecopetrol Group to resume its path of production growth, leveraged on some 20 pilot projects to implement improved recovery technologies. 2018 production is projected at 715,000 to 725,000 barrels of petroleum-equivalent per day.
Investments in the transportation and refining segments, equivalent to 14% of the plan, will be oriented toward ensuring the reliability, integrity, performance standards and operating efficiency of the entire oil pipeline and polyduct network and the Barrancabermeja and Cartagena refineries.
Next year Ecopetrol expects to see the materialization of synergies and benefit from having two complementary refineries, one located in the middle of the country and the other on the Caribbean Coast, with capacity to achieve efficiencies in purchasing and crude mixtures, fuel production and exports. ■