BOGOTA -- Colombia's state oil company plans to invest $6.22 billion in production, exploration and other segments in 2009, up from $4.62 billion this year, Ecopetrol said in a press release Thursday.

"The 2009 investment plan is aligned with our new growth strategy, the goal of which is to become a global energy company as of the year 2015, with daily production of one million barrels of oil equivalent, a greater international presence and a consolidated biofuels, refining and petrochemical portfolio," Ecopetrol President Javier Gutierrez Pemberthy was quoted as saying in the press release.

Speaking at a press conference, he said that of that $6.22 billion total $2.71 billion will be allocated toward production, $1.05 billion toward exploration and new ventures, $814 million toward the refining and petrochemical segment and the remainder toward other investments.

Ecopetrol's crude production as of October 2008 amounted to 446,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, surpassing the target of 425,000 boed set early this year.

Gutierrez Pemberthy also noted that Ecopetrol plans to invest $60 billion in the 2008-2015 period.

The executive said the company has based its projections on an estimated price of $50 per barrel of West Texas Intermediate, used as a benchmark for Colombian crude.

"We're undergoing a time of change but we see good prospects," said the head of Ecopetrol, a company that was founded more than a decade ago and which in 2007 began a process of partial privatization. Its shares currently are listed on the Bogota and New York stock exchanges.

Gutierrez Pemberthy said that in 2009 the company will develop 34 wells in Colombia, eight of them new; and seven in the United States, Brazil and Peru, in partnership with multinational firms.

Ecopetrol said it has accelerated its investment plans in recent years, with total outlays rising from $922 million in 2005 to $4.62 billion in 2008.

The company president noted at the press conference that Ecopetrol announced last week that its net income for the first nine months of the year totaled 10.6 trillion pesos ($4.6 billion), an increase of 146 percent that was mainly due to high oil prices during much of that period.

Gutierrez Pemberthy said Ecopetrol, which currently has no debt, may borrow $1 billion to finance the spending.

He also said that the company in 2009 will pursue a plan to produce low-sulfur diesel to avoid the pollution that the fuel now used in buses currently produces in the country's largest cities, particularly Bogota.

Gutierrez Pemberthy added that Ecopetrol will continue with its plans to open a sugarcane-based ethanol plant in the coming year.

Source: laht.com