Ecopetrol SA, Colombia’s state-controlled oil producer, said first-quarter profit fell 91 percent from a year earlier as the slump in oil prices weighed on the company.
Net income for the group dropped to 355.9 billion pesos ($149 million), from 4.06 trillion pesos a year earlier, Bogota-based Ecopetrol said Tuesday in a statement after markets closed.
That missed the expectation for profit excluding one-time items of 467.5 billion pesos, the average of three analysts’ estimates compiled.
Average output in the quarter was 773,400 barrels of oil equivalent a day, up one percent from a year earlier.
Even after rallying since March, crude prices in New York are down about 40 percent from a year ago amid surging production from US shale fields.
“The effect of lower sale prices caused a decrease in our revenue that was partially offset by the positive exchange rate effect,” Chief Executive Officer Juan Carlos Echeverry said in the statement.
The peso has weakened 19 percent over the last twelve months, boosting the value of each dollar of sales in local currency terms.