Colombia’s state-controlled oil producer Ecopetrol on Monday reported net income of $525.6 million (COP1.56 trillion) for 2016, as it cut costs amid still-low global prices for crude oil.
The company said in a filing to the financial regulator that it returned to profit after a $1.33 billion (3.98 trillion) peso loss in 2015.
“Ecopetrol focused its efforts on reducing costs, producing profitable barrels, prioritizing investments, strengthening assets and at the same time maintaining its credit rating,” Chief Executive Juan Carlos Echeverry said in the statement.
The company invested a total of $2.5 billion in 2016, the statement added, and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization were up 3 percent over 2015 to 18 trillion pesos.
Net profit in the fourth quarter of last year was 186 billion pesos, the company said, compared with a net loss of 6.31 trillion in the final quarter of 2015.
Consolidated oil and gas production during 2016 was 718,000 barrels per day, Ecopetrol said, a 5.6 percent decrease from the year before due to a decline in production at some fields and a fall in investment.
An Ecopetrol official told Reuters last week that the company’s refining business is emerging as an engine of revenue growth, with higher margins of production and earnings.
(Reporting by Julia Symmes Cobb; Editing by Helen Murphy and W Simon)
