Thanks to the increase in the price of oil, which reached 98 dollars between January and March for the reference Brent, the company with a state majority ecopetrol reached profits of 6.57 billion pesos in the first quarter of 2022.
The financial results reported this Wednesday implied an increase of 112 percent with respect to the profits shown between January and March 2021, which totaled 3.1 billion pesos, making the company achieve the best quarterly result in its history, in which total reported as profits a sum of 5 billion, that is, 76 percent, came from the segment of exploration and production of oil and gas.
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Between January and March, the Ecopetrol Group achieved consolidated sales of 32.5 trillion pesos, that is, 89 percent more in income compared to the same period last year, while its EBITDA, that is, profit before taxes, depreciation and amortization, reached 15.9 trillion pesos compared to 8.2 trillion pesos in the first quarter of 2021.
It must be remembered that the resources that the company achieves this year will be one of the key supports for the general budget of the Nation for 2023, which the next Government will enter into execution.
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In operational matters, Ecopetrol had a production of 692,000 barrels of oil and gas equivalent in the first quarter, increasing the level by 2.4 percent compared to the first three months of 2021.
According to the company’s report, the transportation segment contributed 972,000 million pesos to the company, but fell 15.7 percent annually, while the profit of the refining segment was 488,000 million pesos from a loss of 187,000 million pesos for the period January-March 2021.
Despite the good start of the year, the president of Ecopetrol, Felipe Bayón Pardo, said that although high prices have favored the company’s income, they have also generated challenges in terms of inflation, and high energy costs added to the crisis. international logistics, which are beginning to put pressure on operating costs and project execution times.
“In the Group we have been permanently monitoring the impacts
direct and indirect and we have taken actions with the purpose of mitigating their effect”, assured the director.