Ecopetrol Eyes Carlyle’s Colombia Asset to Boost Reserves

(Bloomberg) -- Colombia’s state-owned Ecopetrol SA is considering buying Carlyle Group’s oil driller in the nation as it looks to boost reserves and output, its top executives said in an interview. 

Carlyle Group is seeking to sell SierraCol Energy Ltd., Colombia’s biggest independent oil producer, for $1.5 billion, Reuters reported last month. The assets were purchased from Occidental Petroleum Corp. in 2020 for about $825 million. 

“We were invited to the process and are currently analyzing the option,” Rafael Guzman, Ecopetrol’s vice president of hydrocarbons, said Tuesday in an interview in the company’s headquarters in Bogotá, speaking alongside Chief Executive Officer Ricardo Roa. “We have yet to decide if we present an offer,” Guzman added, declining to provide a potential amount. 

A press official for Carlyle Group declined to comment. SierraCol, which produces around 45,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day, also declined to comment. 

Dollar bonds of SierraCol maturing in 2028 rose 2 cents on the dollar after the news to trade at around 96 cents, the highest levels since Nov. 2021, according to Trace data. Ecopetrol shares slipped 0.5% in Bogota trading. 

With Colombia’s reserves of oil and natural gas falling, and President Gustavo Petro refusing to grant new exploration licenses, Ecopetrol is focused on contracts signed before the environmentalist leader took power in 2022. In February, the driller announced it had taken full ownership of the CPO-09 block in the nation’s oil-rich eastern plains, which helped boost reserves.

“As we find assets and room to increase exploration and reserves, we will do so gradually,” Roa said Tuesday. Ecopetrol estimates it will produce between 740,000 and 750,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day this year.

Ecopetrol’s natural gas reserves fell to the equivalent of 6.7 years last year, down from 7.2 years in 2023. Meanwhile, its oil reserves rose to 7.8 years from 7.7 years in the same period. 

(Updates with market moves in fifth paragraph.)

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