LatinNews Daily - 25 October 2023

* The Colombian oil workers’ union Unión Sindical Obrera (USO) has warned that the state oil company Ecopetrol is “at risk” due to a planned reduction in investments. In a statement, USO said that “the recent decision… to cut the investment budget from US$4.5bn this year to US$2.5bn in 2024 puts at risk the continuation of Ecopetrol’s main business, which is the exploration and production of oil and gas”. The statement added that while the company’s medium-term fiscal plan predicts average annual oil production of 825,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2026, this figure “becomes unattainable if Ecopetrol maintains the trend of reducing its investments in addition to the natural 15% decline in oil fields each year”. USO instead forecasts that if current trends persist, Ecopetrol would produce just 472,000 bpd in 2026.