Ecopetrol S.A. (Ecopetrol) (BVC: ECOPETROL; NYSE: EC) is replacing five vice presidents, the company said in a statement, continuing an executive overhaul that has moved in step with Colombia’s change of government and the corruption-clouded exit of former President Ricardo Roa Barragán. The Board of Directors adopted the changes at a meeting on Thursday, August 27, 2026, and all five outgoing executives will hand off their duties by August 30, with internal candidates from the same divisions taking over on an acting basis starting August 31.

Sandra Lucía Rodríguez Rojas, corporate vice president of Territorial Transformation and HSE since August 2024, will be succeeded on an acting basis by Miguel Ángel Cortés Angarita, a senior environmental management professional in the same area. Jaime Andrés García Cuello, vice president of Administration and Services since September 2024, will be replaced by Álvaro Iván Saavedra Barón, the unit’s hydrocarbons supply manager. Diana Marcela Jiménez Rodríguez, corporate director of Institutional Relations and Communications, hands the role to Juliana Perdomo Valencia, a senior communications specialist in the same office. Julián Fernando Lemos Valero, corporate vice president of Strategy and New Business, gives way to Adrian Santiago Coral Pantoja, the area’s hydrocarbons new business manager. And Felipe Trujillo López, vice president of Refining and Industrial Processes since January 2025, is succeeded by Ana Carolina Ríos Junco, a senior process engineer in the same vice presidency.

Ecopetrol said the arrangements are temporary assignments while it runs formal selection processes for each position, and that it will announce permanent appointments “in due course.” In its statement, the company thanked the departing executives for their leadership and results and wished them success in their next professional steps.

The reshuffle is the latest step in a broader leadership turnover that began with Roa’s July 30 exit as Ecopetrol’s president after more than three years in the job. Colombia’s Fiscalía General de la Nación (Attorney General’s Office) said in February it would charge Roa over two separate matters: violating campaign spending limits during Gustavo Petro’s 2022 presidential campaign, which Roa managed, and trafficking in influence tied to his purchase of a Bogotá apartment prosecutors say cost $1.8 billion COP. Colombia’s Consejo Nacional Electoral (National Electoral Council) had already ratified a $5.922 billion COP sanction against the 2022 campaign in April for spending-limit violations exceeding $5.3 billion COP combined across both election rounds, ordering Roa, the campaign’s treasurer and its internal auditor to pay it, and referring the matter to prosecutors. The Fiscalía filed a formal accusation over the apartment purchase on June 9, alleging the payments moved through a company controlled by a retired police colonel, Juan Guillermo Mancera, to a seller linked to oil and gas investor Serafino Iacono. Roa has denied wrongdoing and has said he intends to remain in Colombia to answer the proceedings.

In farewell remarks on July 30 reported by Infobae, Roa apologized to Ecopetrol’s staff, saying he “deeply regretted that the personal matters of the human being that is Ricardo Roa had been the focus of this organization’s attention.” He added that the controversy had “kept us from showing the real achievements and results we accomplished during this time.”

Juan Carlos Hurtado Parra has served as Ecopetrol’s acting president since July 31 while a headhunting firm runs a formal search for a permanent successor. Martín Ravelo, a leader of the Unión Sindical Obrera (USO), Ecopetrol’s main oil workers’ union, told Semana that President Abelardo De la Espriella told union leaders his close adviser, Joaquín Gutiérrez, was a strong candidate for the post, though the choice formally rests with the board.

De la Espriella took office August 7, days after narrowly winning a June 21 runoff against left-wing Senator Iván Cepeda, and has moved quickly to reshape Ecopetrol’s governance, which his government has called a priority. Luis Felipe Henao now chairs the nine-member board, and six governors of oil-producing departments recently backed the continued board membership of Ricardo Rodríguez Yee, a holdover from the previous administration, according to El País. The government plans to propose a new board slate on September 15 alongside a bylaw reform that would let it replace most of the board’s remaining seats while keeping Henao, Rodríguez Yee and worker representative César Loza in place, Infobae reported.

The Colombian government holds about 88.5% of Ecopetrol’s shares, which is why the fight over its board and leadership carries weight well beyond the company itself. Ecopetrol employs more than 19,000 people, produces more than 60% of Colombia’s oil and gas, and controls most of the country’s pipeline, logistics, and refining network, alongside major petrochemical and gas-distribution businesses. Its 51.4% stake in ISA extends its reach into power transmission, Colombia’s real-time grid operator, XM, and the Barranquilla-Cartagena highway concession, while its own upstream operations reach the United States’ Permian Basin and Gulf of Mexico, Brazil, and Mexico, and, through ISA, power transmission in Brazil, Chile, Peru, and Bolivia, road concessions in Chile, and telecommunications.

Headline photo: Ricardo Roa during his inauguration as President of Ecopetrol, April 2023. Photo courtesy of Ecopetrol.

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)