Colombia's majority state-owned oil producer Ecopetrol reported on Tuesday a 22 per cent net profit slump in the first quarter, pointing to geopolitical tensions weighing down global oil prices.
"We are facing an environment affected by external variables, geopolitical tensions and principally a strong impact of the fall in Brent crude prices," CEO Ricardo Roa said in a statement.
The company said an economic slowdown in China as well as the United States' widespread tariff threats had hit crude prices, while uncertainty on production licenses in Venezuela and sanctions on certain oil imports added to the sector's challenges.
Net profits for the firm hit 3.13 trillion pesos ($731 million) in the first three months of 2025, compared to the 4.01 trillion it reported a year earlier, while total sales came in at 31.37 trillion pesos, a hairbreadth above the same quarter of 2024.
In a press conference, Roa said the company had taken a 1.2 trillion peso hit to its bottom line due to a higher tax burden resulting from a decree by President Gustavo Petro that aims to address violence in the north-eastern region of Catatumbo.
The company's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) meanwhile fell 6.9 per cent in the first three months of 2025 versus the same period last year to 13.26 trillion pesos, while its EBITDA margin contracted 3.2 per cent.
Ecopetrol, whose shares are 88.5 per cent held by the Colombian government, said total production in the period edged up 0.6 per cent year-on-year to 745,400 barrels of oil equivalent per day.
It closed the first quarter with 17 billion pesos in cash and invested close to $1.22 billion, while advancing with the drilling of four of 10 wells planned for this year.
One well was successful, it said, while two are under evaluation and one was found to by dry.
Roa added that Ecopetrol would continue to develop offshore gas projects off the country's Caribbean coast after partner Shell withdrew, saying he considered the fields "economically and technically viable."
Ecopetrol is also advancing with talks over other non-conventional energy projects, he said.
(Reporting by Nelson Bocanegra and Sarah Morland; Editing by Natalia Siniawski and Lincoln Feast)