Ecopetrol thrives despite civil turmoil

The company’s balance sheet benefitted from the commodity price upsurge in Q2, helping offset production outages

Colombian NOC Ecopetrol exited Q2 posting $951mn in net income, an impressive $947mn increase over the same quarter the previous year, despite national protests and blockades disrupting operations and causing significant financial losses. Sales revenues were up by 56pc over the same quarter in 2020 as healthy commodity prices helped make up for a slight drop in production. Total output fell by 2.5pc year on year, mainly due to the widespread social unrest, which Ecopetrol estimates cost the company $71.5mn in net income.  “The result for the second quarter of 2021 is the best ever recorded in the history of the Ecopetrol Group, with consolidated revenue of COP19.4tn ($4.97bn), an Ebitda of C