Colombia’s Ecopetrol Takes Control of Brazil’s Brava Energia in $1.2 Billion Deal

Colombia’s state oil major secures 51% control of Brazilian producer

Ecopetrol S.A. (BVC: ECOPETROL; NYSE: EC) completed the acquisition of a controlling 51% stake in Brazilian oil and gas producer Brava Energia S.A. (B3: BRAV3) on August 18, 2026, closing a transaction the company said in a statement it valued at approximately $1.2 billion USD. The deal, carried out through Ecopetrol’s Brazilian subsidiary, Ecopetrol Investimentos do Brasil Ltda., gives Bogotá-based Ecopetrol control of a producer that reported 459 million barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe) in proved reserves as of December 31, 2025, and averaged 84,400 barrels of oil equivalent per day of production in June 2026.

The transaction closed through two mechanisms on Brazil’s B3 S.A. – Brasil, Bolsa, Balcão exchange. Ecopetrol’s subsidiary settled and paid for a voluntary tender offer, or Oferta Pública de Aquisição Voluntária (OPAV), that it had won at auction on August 5, 2026, acquiring 116,110,717 common shares of Brava — roughly 25% of the company’s outstanding capital — at $23.00 BRL (about $4.49 USD) per share. Separately, it completed a share purchase agreement signed April 23, 2026, with a group of Brava shareholders holding an additional 26% of the company’s stock. That private agreement had been contingent on the tender offer securing the first 25% stake, a condition the August 5, 2026, auction satisfied.

Ecopetrol disclosed in its August 5, 2026, auction-result announcement that it financed the purchase through an intercompany loan: Ecopetrol Capital AG, a Swiss subsidiary, extended the funds to Ecopetrol Investimentos do Brasil under a short-term bridge facility governed by New York law. The company said it intends to refinance the facility later through a combination of long-term debt and equity.

By Ecopetrol’s own accounting, the price implies approximately $8.4 USD per barrel of Brava’s proved (1P) reserves and $6.3 USD per barrel on a proved-plus-probable (2P) basis, which Brava reported at 605 mmboe as of December 31, 2025. On a production basis, the deal values Brava’s output at roughly $45,700 USD per barrel of daily production.

Brava, headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, was formed in September 2024 through the merger of two independent Brazilian producers, 3R Petroleum Óleo e Gás S.A. and Enauta Participações S.A. For the 12 months ended June 30, 2026, the company reported revenue of approximately $2.341 billion USD, EBITDA of approximately $1.05 billion USD, and net income of approximately $122.2 million USD, according to its unaudited financial disclosures. Brazil’s antitrust authority, the Conselho Administrativo de Defesa Econômica (CADE, the Administrative Council for Economic Defense), cleared the transaction without conditions in a decision that became final in mid-June 2026, according to Brazilian financial outlet InfoMoney.

Luis Felipe Henao, president of Ecopetrol’s board of directors, framed the acquisition as a way to diversify into a jurisdiction with more favorable tax treatment than Colombia. “I hope this will be a great deal for Ecopetrol. Brava adds very important reserves for Colombia, but there is something very important here: it consolidates a market Ecopetrol was already working in. Brazil has a better tax rate and better taxes than Colombia does, which is why returns can be higher in that country,” Henao told La República as the transaction neared its close.

The purchase adds to Ecopetrol’s existing exploration and production interests in the United States’ Permian Basin and Gulf of Mexico and in Mexico. Colombia’s national government owns roughly 88% of Ecopetrol; the remainder trades on the Colombian and New York exchanges.

The deal closed weeks into a leadership transition at Ecopetrol that coincided with Colombia’s own change of government: Abelardo de la Espriella was inaugurated president August 7, 2026, succeeding Gustavo Petro. Ricardo Roa Barragán, Ecopetrol’s former president, left the company July 30, 2026. Colombia’s Fiscalía General de la Nación (Attorney General’s Office) had charged Roa in March 2026 with influence trafficking over a Bogotá apartment purchase and filed a formal indictment on that charge in June 2026, according to Infobae; separately, prosecutors charged him in May 2026 with violating campaign-spending limits tied to Gustavo Petro’s 2022 presidential campaign, which Roa managed, according to a separate Infobae report. Roa has denied wrongdoing. Juan Carlos Hurtado Parra has served as Ecopetrol’s interim president since July 31, 2026, while the company’s board searches for a permanent successor.

Photo: Brava Energy (LinkedIn)