Ecopetrol’s profits fell 95.2% in the first quarter of 2020

“We saw the impact of the fall in oil prices added to the COVID-19 pandemic in the results of the first quarter,” said the company president, Felipe Bayón, on Monday.

A year ago, the profit was 2.7 trillion pesos, while the quarterly profit before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (Ebitda) was 5.3 trillion pesos, 28.5% less than in the same period last year.

“Ebitda had a drop in its vast majority caused by that dramatic drop in prices,” said Bayón, who explained that Ecopetrol made its budget for this year calculating a price of $ 57 for a barrel of Brent crude oil, reference for Colombia, but the average in the quarter was $ 51.

The president of Ecopetrol explained that the company made an accounting adjustment of one trillion pesos for its benefit, as a forecast in a “challenging environment”. Without this adjustment, the net profit would have been higher, of 1.1 trillion pesos: “Given the dramatic change in market conditions, we made this expense for ‘impairment’ of more than one trillion pesos because we consider that the deterioration conditions of the markets required it ”, he added about this accounting adjustment which, he said, is more common to do at the end of the year.

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