Colombia Lists $12 Billion in Ecopetrol Assets for Sale

The Colombia Ecopetrol asset sale plan submitted to Congress lists virtually the entire operational structure of the state-controlled oil company as potentially available for divestment.

The Rio Times, the Latin American financial news outlet, reports that President Gustavo Petro’s Finance Ministry has submitted the country’s most sweeping divestment blueprint in recent memory. The 2026 Plan Indicativo de Enajenación Global, a legally required annual document submitted to Congress, identifies 38 Ecopetrol subsidiaries worth a combined 50 trillion Colombian pesos — approximately $12 billion — as candidates for potential sale. The list spans exploration, refining, pipelines, and power generation assets.

What’s on the Colombia Ecopetrol Asset Sale List

The highest-value assets include the Cartagena Refinery (Reficar) at 23.9 trillion pesos, Ecopetrol Global Energy at 17.5 trillion, and Ecopetrol USA at 14.7 trillion. The Permian basin shale operations in Texas are listed at 10.9 trillion pesos, and together these four units account for more than half the total divestment universe.

The plan also includes Colombia’s critical pipeline network — Cenit, Ocensa, and the Llanos Orientales pipeline — as well as a 51.4% stake in ISA, the Medellín-based electricity interconnector valued at 15.6 trillion pesos. International subsidiaries in Peru, Mexico, Singapore, and Switzerland round out the list.

Legal Framework vs. Political Reality

The Finance Ministry emphasized that the plan is informational and does not constitute a decision to sell. Under Colombia’s Law 226 of 1995, the government must submit a list of potentially divestible assets to Congress within the first 60 days of each year. Any actual sale would require separate board approval from Ecopetrol’s directors, shareholder consent, and a specific presidential decree.

Ecopetrol itself moved quickly to distance its board from the plan. The company stated that no definitive divestment decision has been made regarding any subsidiary. However, it acknowledged that all listed companies are “susceptible to being considered” for sale during 2026, pending case-by-case evaluation.

Petro’s Green Pivot Drives the Agenda

President Petro made his priorities explicit on X, calling for the sale of the Permian operations and other assets associated with fracking. He argued that these investments — made under former CEO Felipe Bayón — had drained Ecopetrol’s capital and should be replaced with clean energy spending. Petro has consistently positioned Colombia’s energy transition as a signature policy, despite its conflict with the country’s fiscal dependency on oil revenues.

The timing is notable. Ecopetrol remains Colombia’s single largest source of government revenue through taxes, dividends, and royalties, and the state holds 88.2% of the company.

With interest rates still elevated and fiscal space narrowing, critics see the divestment plan as a desperation move to fund spending commitments in Petro’s final months in office.

Union Pushback and Market Reaction

The Unión Sindical Obrera (USO), Colombia’s powerful oil workers’ union, has formally requested emergency meetings with both Ecopetrol management and the Finance Minister. The union acknowledged that some assets on the list are underperforming and could reasonably be sold, but warned that others are strategic national assets that should never be considered.

The USO has also requested that the Senate’s Fifth Committee open public hearings on the plan’s implications. For investors tracking Colombia’s sovereign risk, the plan reinforces a pattern: Moody’s recently downgraded Ecopetrol to Ba2, citing increased government interference risk. Whether any of these 38 assets actually reach market depends on Colombia’s May 31 presidential election — and whether any successor government would inherit or abandon Petro’s divestment agenda.