Colombia Sets September Vote to Replace Six of Nine Ecopetrol Board Members

COLOMBIA · ENERGY

Colombia’s state oil company has formally set an extraordinary shareholders’ meeting for 15 September. The government will seek to replace six of the nine members of the Ecopetrol board while crude production keeps sliding.

The meeting is now official

Ecopetrol confirmed the call this week. The extraordinary assembly will meet on Tuesday 15 September 2026. Its single-issue agenda is the renewal of the company’s highest governing body.

The government of President Abelardo De La Espriella called the meeting. Colombia’s state owns the large majority of Ecopetrol, so the official slate normally carries the vote.

There is a legal step first. The government will ask shareholders to modify article 20 of the company statutes before any names are voted on.

That change opens the door to a wider recomposition of the Ecopetrol board. Only after the reform passes would the single slate of candidates go to a vote.

The six names the government will propose

Semana, citing reporting by the financial outlet Valora Analitik, published the six names. The best known is Carlos Augusto Suárez, a political strategist from the president’s inner circle.

The list also includes Jorge Alberto Jaller Jaramillo. He is a businessman with experience at the retail group Éxito and was designated Colombia’s diplomatic representative to Venezuela.

The energy and business sectors get José Camilo Manzur Jattin, president of the distributors’ association Asocodis. The government side brings Ludmila del Carmen Vergara, the current superintendent of transport.

Two more names complete the slate. Betzy Patricia Martínez is a political leader from the Atlántico department. Claudia Margarita Lafaurie Taboada worked at the National Hydrocarbons Agency, known as ANH. There she was administrative and financial deputy director.

Three members would keep their seats

The renewal is broad but not total. Luis Felipe Henao, the minority shareholders’ representative and current board chairman, would stay on.

César Loza, the seat held for the oil workers’ union USO, would also remain. So would Ricardo Rodríguez Yee, the voice of the oil-producing regions.

That continuity matters. The governors of Colombia’s oil-producing departments back Rodríguez Yee. We reported their united front this week as the fight over the company’s direction escalated.

The plan keeps the seats reserved for workers, pension funds and producing departments. The workers’ representative keeps a four-year term under the proposal.

Production is falling while the board fights

The governance drama lands at an awkward moment. Colombia’s crude output averaged 712,799 barrels per day in June, down 4.22 percent, according to the industry chamber Acipet.

The trend has been negative for months. The National Hydrocarbons Agency put the first-quarter average at 740,812 barrels per day, so the country has lost ground since March.

Gas is under pressure too. Acipet reported lower marketed gas volumes alongside the June crude decline, deepening concerns about domestic supply.

The numbers matter beyond the oil towns. Ecopetrol is the country’s biggest company and one of the treasury’s largest sources of dividends and taxes.

Every lost barrel narrows the room the government has to spend. It also raises the stakes for whoever sits on the Ecopetrol board after the September vote.

Colombian press reports this week said July brought another decline in oil and gas output. Neither Ecopetrol nor the ANH had published a final July figure at the time of writing.

The shake-up reaches the executive floor

The Ecopetrol board is not the only level in motion. The company separately announced changes in five senior management positions and a new internal structure.

Taken together, the moves give the new administration control over both oversight and operations. That is the fastest full reset of the company’s leadership in years.

Investors will read the slate for signals. The presence of the president’s political strategist is the name markets will watch most closely, Caracol Radio noted.

What to watch on 15 September

The first test is procedural. If the statutes reform fails, the slate cannot be voted as designed, and the Ecopetrol board keeps its current shape.

The second test is political. Minority shareholders have used past assemblies to challenge government candidates over conflicts of interest and experience.

The third test is operational. A new Ecopetrol board will inherit falling production, a weaker peso and unresolved questions about the company’s foreign expansion.

For foreign readers, the takeaway is simple. Colombia’s most important company is getting a new board, and the decision arrives while the barrels it oversees are declining.

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