Colombia's state-controlled Ecopetrol said its board gave a unanimous vote to put Joaquín Gutiérrez in the top job, effective Sept. 28. He takes over from acting chief Alfonso Camilo Barco Muñoz, who has overseen operations since mid-September after Ricardo Roa was removed; Roa departed in July as authorities investigated alleged influence peddling. In announcing the move, the company said it was looking for "a leader with an exceptional ability to build consensus" at a tough moment for the business.
The change at the top lines up with a policy turn from President Abelardo de la Espriella, who vowed to roll back his predecessor's move away from fossil fuels and put Ecopetrol's focus back on finding and producing oil and gas. Gutiérrez, who managed de la Espriella's campaign and owns the luxury real estate developer Desarrolladora Salguero, got a public nod in the president's victory speech as one of his "brothers at heart." La República reported the president plans to hold an event to greet the new CEO in Santa Marta on Friday.
Ecopetrol's swing back to its core business comes as neighboring Venezuela opens the door wider to foreign oil and gas investment, raising the fight for capital across Latin America. De la Espriella selected electricity-sector veteran María Arboleda as energy minister and tasked her with leading the hydrocarbons comeback. One of the hurdles on her plate: a shortfall in domestic natural gas that has pushed Colombia to rely more on higher priced imported liquefied natural gas. Bloomberg Intelligence Senior Credit Analyst Spencer Cutter cautioned that "though the new president may restructure Ecopetrol and streamline the permitting process, legal and regulatory hurdles remain."
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Roughly 88% of Ecopetrol is owned by the Colombian state, so policy shifts matter. On the power side, Colombia gets about two thirds of its electricity from hydropower, which leaves the system sensitive to dry spells and El Niño conditions that could elevate the risk of shortages this year. The stakes around supply, investment flows and policy speed are likely to shape how quickly any production rebound shows up in output, prices and cash flows that ripple into the broader economy.
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