Fitch Revises Outlook on Ecopetrol's 'BB' IDR to Positive.CHICAGO -- Fitch Ratings Fitch Ratings An international rating agency for financial institutions, insurance companies, and corporate, sovereign, and municipal debt. Fitch Ratings has headquarters in New York and London and is wholly owned by FIMALAC of Paris. has revised the Rating Outlook of the long-term foreign currency issuer default rating (IDR IDR In currencies, this is the abbreviation for the Indonesian Rupiah. Notes: The currency market, also known as the Foreign Exchange market, is the largest financial market in the world, with a daily average volume of over US $1 trillion. ) of ECOPETROL ECOPETROL Empresa Colombiana de Petroleos (Colombia) S.A. to Positive from Stable. This rating action follows the recent revision in the Rating Outlook to Positive from Stable of the 'BB' foreign currency IDR of the Republic of Colombia. Ecopetrol's IDR remain strongly linked with the credit profile of the Republic of Colombia. The Outlook revision of the Republic of Colombia is based primarily on improvements in key public and external solvency indicators over the past two years and the expectation that recent trends will improve going forward, albeit more slowly. The ratings of Ecopetrol are supported by a strong financial profile, sizable siz·a·ble also size·a·ble adj. Of considerable size; fairly large. siz  a·ble·ness n. reserves, stable production levels and a dominant domestic market share. The ratings also reflect Ecopetrol's vulnerability to fluctuations in international commodity prices, declining reserves and tightening environmental regulations requiring material investment in downstream operations. Fluctuations in energy prices are generally mitigated mit·i·gate v. mit·i·gat·ed, mit·i·gat·ing, mit·i·gates v.tr. To moderate (a quality or condition) in force or intensity; alleviate. See Synonyms at relieve. v.intr. To become milder. by the company's hedging policy, which is employed to guarantee minimum required payments to the government. Ecopetrol's ratings are strongly linked with the credit profile of the Republic of Colombia (local and foreign currency ratings of 'BBB-' and 'BB', respectively), the company's ultimate shareholder. This connection is based on the company's nature as a state-owned entity and the government's ability to potentially restrict the company's financial flexibility, the importance of the company to public-sector revenues and by the government's restrictions on Ecopetrol's budget. Ecopetrol is an integrated-oil company that is wholly owned by the Colombian government. The concern's activities include exploration for and production of crude oil and natural gas, as well as refining refining, any of various processes for separating impurities from crude or semifinished materials. It includes the finer processes of metallurgy, the fractional distillation of petroleum into its commercial products, and the purifying of cane, beet, and maple sugar , transportation, and marketing of crude oil, natural gas and refined products. Ecopetrol is Latin America's fourth-largest integrated-oil concern. Operations are organized into Exploration & Production, Refining & Marketing, Transportation, and International Commerce & Gas. Fitch's rating definitions and the terms of use Terms of Use are rules set up by the owner of an intellectual property or service to govern how they may be legally used. In many cases, terms of service are used as a contractual agreement between a company and users of a service they provide. of such ratings are available on the agency's public site, 'www.fitchratings.com'. Published ratings, criteria and methodologies are available from this site, at all times. Fitch's code of conduct, confidentiality, conflicts of interest, affiliate firewall, compliance and other relevant policies and procedures Policies and Procedures are a set of documents that describe an organization's policies for operation and the procedures necessary to fulfill the policies. They are often initiated because of some external requirement, such as environmental compliance or other governmental are also available from the 'Code of Conduct' section of this site. |
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