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The Petro administration’s stated ambition to pushing those maturities. That’s the only reason
phase out oil and coal as part of the energy tran- why I think they would pay so much and not
sition has hampered investor confidence, par- wait for better technicals.”
ticularly since the government owns an 88.5% Ecopetrol’s sale is the first issuance of 2023
share in Ecopetrol. for a major Latin American corporate borrower.
In the meantime, the NOC is working to Following this sale, the Mexican government
cover its budget. closed a $4bn bond sale.
Last week, Ecopetrol confirmed that it had
issued new bonds as part of a wider effort to
fund its 2023 investment plan while also paying
off some of its existing debts.
In addition to the $1.8bn of bonds due in
September, Ecopetrol still owes an outstanding
$472mn on its loan that it took out to finance its
acquisition of Interconexion Electrica SA (ICA),
a Colombian utility company that it purchased
in 2021.
Regarding Ecopetrol’s decision to sell at a
seemingly inopportune time, Lorena Reich, a
senior credit analyst at Lucror Analytics, offered
the following assessment: “The company has a
very ambitious capex plan for the year plus the
maturity of the 23s [23-year notes] in September
and the ISA loan, so I guess they want to start Ecopetrol is still working to pay off $472mn for its purchase of ISA (File Photo)
VENEZUELA
ConocoPhillips said to be open to deal
for selling Venezuelan crude oil in US
HOUSTON-BASED ConocoPhillips is open looking for ways to recover the almost $10bn it
to exploring a deal to sell Venezuelan oil in the is owed by Caracas. ConocoPhillips abandoned
US, sources familiar with the matter confirmed its Venezuelan assets in 2007 when they were
last week. nationalised by the government of then-Presi-
According to the sources, the US company is dent Hugo Chavez.
PetroZuata is one of the assets seized from ConocoPhillips in 2007 (Image: ConocoPhillips)
P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 03 18•January•2023
