Ecopetrol

Ecopetrol is the state-linked oil and gas group people think of when Colombia’s hydrocarbons business comes up, with production, refining and fuel sales under one roof. By our assessment, its strength is that it sits across the whole chain, so it is not just a crude producer but part of the system that turns that crude into petrol, diesel and other products. The trade-off is obvious: this is still an oil business, tied to commodity cycles, regulation and the politics that follow them. In practice that means heavy infrastructure, long time horizons and little glamour, because the work is more about fields, pipelines and refineries than about any consumer-facing polish. Compared with pure explorers, Ecopetrol is more integrated; compared with global majors, it is more concentrated in one country. The catalogue marks it for Colombia, which fits the way it is usually discussed. It is the sort of company that makes sense to people who want exposure to a national energy backbone rather than a thin slice of upstream risk.