Ecopetrol, Colombia’s largest company and one of the leading oil and gas producers in Latin America, operates a Texas oil field with Occidental Petroleum. File Photo by Guillermo Legaria/EPA
Sept. 17 (UPI) -- President Gustavo Petro said Ecopetrol should sell its stake in a Texas oil field it operates with multinational Occidental Petroleum and use the proceeds to fund clean energy projects in Colombia.
"Insisting on oil and coal is a national economic suicide because it destroys jobs. And it is literally a global collective suicide. Capital must -- and if it does not want to, it must be forced -- to leave the hydrocarbons sector, or humanity will become extinct," the president said on his X account.
Ecopetrol is Colombia's largest company and one of the leading oil and gas producers in Latin America, engaged in exploration, production, transportation, refining and marketing. The Colombian government holds about 88.5% of the company's shares through state entities.
In his message, Petro said, "Colombia needs an Ecopetrol transformed into Ecoenergía, which would be a major global exporter of clean energy."
